Flight Safety Information - October 24, 2024 No. 212 In This Issue : Incident: UPS B763 near Spokane on Oct 23rd 2024, cargo fire indication : Incident: ABX B763 at Fort Worth on Oct 22nd 2024, flaps problem : Accident: THY A21N at Dublin on Oct 18th 2024, tail strike on landing : Accident: China Southern B789 at Guangzhou on Oct 21st 2024, tail strike on landing : Air Force Maintainer Blamed for Causing Fighter Jet Fire with Lift Truck, Incident Report Says : American Airlines flight with engine stall issue lands safely at Columbus airport : Federal Flight Surgeon Addresses Mental Health Progress, Deferral Delays : Air Transat laying off hundreds of flight attendants, says cuts are temporary : TSA at Boise Airport finds record-setting number of guns in carry-on luggage : Land an airplane using cellphone tech? Backup GPS system could make it possible : Dyess Air Force Base approved as B-21 bomber aircraft operating base : GE Partners With Lilium Jet On eVTOL Data Platforms : Elevate Your Organization's Safety Practices with ERAU’s SMS Course in Daytona Beach Nov. 19-21 : Calendar of Events Incident: UPS B763 near Spokane on Oct 23rd 2024, cargo fire indication A UPS United Parcel Service Boeing 767-300 freighter, registration N396UP performing flight 5X-2993 from Spokane,WA to Louisville,KY (USA) with 2 crew, was enroute at FL310 about 120nm eastsoutheast of Spokane when the crew decided to turn around and return to Spokane reporting a cargo fire indication. The aircraft landed safely back on Spokane's runway 21 about 50 minutes after departure. Spokane's Fire Department reported the crew had reported a cargo fire, they checked the brakes after landing. The aircraft is still on the ground in Spokane about 6.5 hours after landing back. https://avherald.com/h?article=51f46181&opt=0 Incident: ABX B763 at Fort Worth on Oct 22nd 2024, flaps problem An ABX Air Boeing 767-300 freighter on behalf of Amazon Prime Air, registration N1427A performing flight GB-3125 from Ontario,CA to Fort Worth,TX (USA), was on approach to Fort Worth's Alliance Airport's runway 16L when the crew initiated a go around reporting a "mechanical" at first, then updating they had an issue with the flaps. The aircraft climbed to 4000 feet, positioned for another approach and landed safely on runway 16L at a normal speed about 20 minutes later. The FAA reported: "The crew of ABX Air Services Flight 3125 reported a possible wing issue and safely landed at Perot Field / Fort Worth Alliance Airport in Texas, around 9:50 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Oct. 22. The Boeing 767-300ER cargo plane departed from Ontario International Airport in California. The FAA is investigating." https://avherald.com/h?article=51f46180&opt=0 Accident: THY A21N at Dublin on Oct 18th 2024, tail strike on landing A THY Turkish Airlines Airbus A321-200N, registration TC-LTL performing flight TK-1975 from Istanbul (Turkey) to Dublin (Ireland), landed on Dublin's runway 28L at 09:18L (08:18Z) but balked the landing, the tail contacted the runway, went around and positioned for another approach. The aircraft landed on runway 28L without further incident about 15 minutes later. The return flight TK-1976 was cancelled. A listener on frequency reported the crew requested a runway inspection and an inspection of the tail after arrival. The aircraft is still on the ground in Dublin 5 days later. https://avherald.com/h?article=51f4617f&opt=0 Accident: China Southern B789 at Guangzhou on Oct 21st 2024, tail strike on landing A China Southern Airlines Boeing 787-9, registration B-1243 performing flight CZ-3534 from Shanghai Hongqiao to Guangzhou (China), landed on Guangzhou's runway 02L at 12:51L (04:51Z) but struck its tail onto the runway surface. The aircraft rolled out without further incident and taxied to the apron. The aircraft received substantial damage. The aircraft is still on the ground in Guangzhou about 60 hours (2.5 days) after landing. https://avherald.com/h?article=51f4617d&opt=0 Air Force Maintainer Blamed for Causing Fighter Jet Fire with Lift Truck, Incident Report Says An Air Force maintainer was faulted by officials for losing control of a bomb lift truck that struck a parked F-16 Fighting Falcon jet, causing it to erupt into flames last year during a deployment, an accident investigation report revealed. The incident -- which took place in a "undisclosed location in Southwest Asia" -- occurred Nov. 17 when the maintainer was operating an MJ-1 vehicle, called a "jammer," as crew members were loading ammunition onto a parked F-15E Strike Eagle, the report released Friday detailed. While operating the bomb lift and placing it in reverse, the maintainer had a "loss of situational awareness and confusion" during which he thought he could not stop the vehicle and was accelerating instead of braking. The airman had been familiar with a different model that had a small difference in the location of the pedals, according to the Air Force investigation. Read Next: Army Sergeant Major's Chelsea Boots Turn Heads as Service Mulls Allowing Them for Rank and File The MJ-1 hit the sniper pod of the F-15E, and the maintainer "hit his head and scraped his back" and then went "unconscious," the report detailed. The airman was thrown from the vehicle, and it hit the Strike Eagle's landing gear tire, where it shifted direction toward the parked F-16 Fighting Falcon about 60 feet away. The lift ultimately hit that aircraft's fuel tank, causing a leak. While the incident resulted in no fatalities or major injuries, it caused nearly $5,000 in environmental cleanup costs and upward of $30 million in damages to the aircraft, according to the accident investigation board. One crew member had tried using two other bomb lifts prior to the incident, but one would not start and the other was experiencing gear shifting issues, which led the crew to use the jammer that caused the incident, the report found. The report also points to other failures such as "a lack of proper documentation for the jammer fleet at the undisclosed location and a loose culture of adherence to Air Force standards and technical procedures by maintainers at the location" as additional factors in the crash, U.S. Air Forces Europe-Air Forces Africa said in a news release. The report on the incident comes as the Air Force is pushing maintainers to sign nondisclosure agreements, or NDAs, before they can receive privileged safety reports on such mishaps. In a roundtable with reporters Friday, Maj. Gen. Sean Choquette, the Air Force chief of safety and commander of the Air Force Safety Center, said that recent incidents on the flight line prompted officials to have maintainers sign NDAs and loop them in on safety reports. The Air Force's 80,000 maintainers will have access to the reports after signing NDAs, he said. "We've had an increase over the course of last year in what we call aviation ground operations mishaps, so not flying the aircraft, but towing airplanes around the flight line, maintenance work out on the flight line," Choquette told reporters. "We can't share all of the lessons-learned information that we have inside the safety privileged system without extending that to them." After major mishaps, Air Force officials typically commission two reports: an accident investigation board report and a safety investigation board report. The former is released to the public while the safety investigation board reports are kept internal, often provide more specifics and details behind the cause of a mishap, and are used to educate service members and officials. Choquette said that internal safety privilege is important in the investigations. "What safety privilege does is it promises to those individuals that anything that they say can't be used in disciplinary action and it will not be presented in public in order for them to talk in a fulsome way about what occurred," Choquette said. "We don't want to put them in a situation where they feel like they can't tell the whole story, because it's going to come out in an article that's going to be read by their family or their superiors or their subordinates." For example, Military.com reported on the accident investigation board findings behind a CV-22 Osprey crash late last year in Japan that claimed the lives of eight airmen. But the news organization also reviewed a copy of the internal safety investigation board report that, unlike the accident investigation board report, revealed prior warnings related to a component that failed on the aircraft a decade ago. Transparency advocates told Military.com earlier this month that requiring NDAs appeared to be an "effort to intimidate" those in uniform from speaking. When asked by reporters whether an airman could face administrative action if they revealed safety privileged information under that NDA, Choquette responded, "You bet they could." https://www.military.com/daily-news/2024/10/23/air-force-maintainer-blamed-causing-fighter-jet-fire-lift-truck-incident-report-says.html American Airlines flight with engine stall issue lands safely at Columbus airport Columbus Dispatch An American Airlines flight diverted to John Glenn Columbus International Airport made an emergency landing Wednesday night without incident, an airport spokesperson said. The aircraft was having a problem with its right engine stalling, said Breann Almos, a spokesperson for the Columbus Regional Airport Authority. However, Almos said it was not immediately clear if the aircraft was diverted to John Glenn Columbus (which goes by the three-letter airport code CMH) because of the engine issue, Almos said. The only information Almos had late Wednesday night was that the American flight was diverted by the Federal Aviation Administration control tower at Greater Pittsburgh International Airport to Columbus for safety reasons. The Rural Metro Speciality Fire Division, which has provided aircraft rescue and firefighting and emergency medical services for John Glenn Columbus International Airport from its base at the east end of the airport since 1995 and is part of the airport authority's Public Safety Division, was on standby during the emergency landing by the American Airlines flight. American Airlines media relations did not immediately respond late Wednesday to an email with several questions submitted by The Dispatch about the incident. https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2024/10/23/diverted-american-airlines-flight-makes-safe-emergency-landing-at-john-glenn-columbus-airport/75817332007/ Federal Flight Surgeon Addresses Mental Health Progress, Deferral Delays Federal Flight Surgeon Dr. Susan Northrup, center, gave an update on mental health initiatives at the FAA. Federal Flight Surgeon Dr. Susan Northrup says a pilot medical Bill of Rights is under development, a shorter time lag for pilots to regain their privileges after a medication change is on the way and sometime in the future there will be a "period of non-enforcement" to allow those with undeclared history or challenges with mental health to get the help they need without fear of sanctions. During a Q and A at the National Safety Forum at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas on Wednesday, she also said the backlog delay of medical deferral decisions has been reduced from a year to less than three months and will be reduced further. She's also hoping that those awaiting their deferrals will soon be able to accurately track their progress accurately online in real time. Northrup was in Las Vegas to specifically address mental health issues in aviation, notably the well-known practise of lying about mental health problems to avoid deferrals and potential loss of certificate. She said initial steps taken earlier this year and the "culture shift" in aviation and society as a whole to take a more pragmatic and performance-based approach to mental health are showing results. She said she has observed that more aviation personnel are telling their AMEs about their mental health issues. "We're starting to see it come through," she said. "Anecdotally, we can see it." Rutherford said there is more to come in breaking the stigma and lessening the perceived danger of reporting mental health treatment or the need to pursue it. There has also been about an 80 percent buy-in by AMEs to embrace the culture change and work with the agency on mental health issues. https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/mental-health-progress/ Air Transat laying off hundreds of flight attendants, says cuts are temporary Air Transat says it is laying off as many as 400 flight attendants, but plans to bring them back to work at some point, a move one expert called “a little unusual.” Montreal-based international tour operator Transat A.T. Inc., which runs the Air Transat airline, confirmed in an email to CTVNews.ca Wednesday that the temporary layoffs will affect 350 to 400 staff starting Nov. 1. The information you need to know, sent directly to you: Download the CTV News App "The layoffs are temporary due to the seasonality of our airline operations and a capacity reduction announced earlier this year and specifically concern our flight attendants," according to the corporate statement provided to CTVNews.ca. "We plan to recall staff in due course as soon as our flight schedule allows." The company said it has used this measure several times before, noting the move complies with the collective agreement and "is common in the industry." Will Transat layoffs affect services? For instance, it said an average of 455 flight attendants were temporarily laid off per year from 2010 to 2016. It said before the layoffs the company offered staff members "several mitigation measures," such as unpaid leave and a reduced schedule. When CTVNews.ca asked whether the layoffs would affect flights and the airline’s ability to meet its legal obligations to passengers, Air Transat said the measure would not affect service. “There is no impact on our airline activities, operations or flight schedule,” company spokesperson Andréan Gagné wrote in an email Wednesday. “We have all the crew members we need to operate our flight program, with the same level of service known to Transat.” Despite what the company said, commercial aviation expert John Gradek believes Air Transat’s winter flight schedule may be affected due to the layoffs. Air Transat typically operates a "robust schedule" to sun destinations such as Florida, the Caribbean and Mexico, but the temporary layoffs suggest it won't be flying as much during the winter travel season compared to last winter, said the faculty lecturer in supply networks and aviation management at McGill University. If flights are reduced and there's fewer competition among airlines, passengers will be directly affected, he said. "You'll have less choice this winter in terms of flying to the sun markets," Gradek said, recommending that passengers book winter fares and packages now before they get pricier. "You'll have higher prices." Concerns about future Air Transat's move is "a little unusual," Gradek added. "Typically, you'd see a slight reduction in seasonal workforces," he said. "This one is a little too, too large for me." While the company said financial challenges and reduced travel demand aren’t factors behind the temporary layoffs, Gradek said he is concerned about the airline's survival. He said Air Transat has to address its problem of being nearly a billion dollars in debt. “So they need to either refinance that debt, restructure it, or they might be at risk in terms of not being able to support the operations with that level of debt on their books,” he said. In what the Air Transat spokesperson called a separate measure(opens in a new tab) that’s still under review, the company is considering laying off up to 80 workers, which The Canadian Press reported on Oct. 3. Gagné told CTVNews.ca on Wednesday it was a “corporate business optimization process” that only affects provincially regulated roles, not pilots and flight attendants. The company has faced financial challenges(opens in a new tab) including fierce competition, engine recalls and the threat of a union strike over the past year, according to The Canadian Press. https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/air-transat-laying-off-hundreds-of-flight-attendants-says-cuts-are-temporary-1.7084191 TSA at Boise Airport finds record-setting number of guns in carry-on luggage On Monday, Boise Airport TSA found a loaded pistol in a carry-on bag, bringing the 2024 total to 43 guns discovered. TSA found 42 total firearms in 2023. BOISE, Idaho — A new record for the number of firearms found in carry-on luggage at the Boise Airport has been set in 2024. In 2024, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) said officers found 43 guns in carry-on luggage at the Boise Airport (BOI), breaking the previous record of 42 guns found in 2023. Each gun was discovered during routine X-ray screening at the security checkpoint, officials said. TSA said the latest was found around 4:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 21, when officers found a loaded Taurus G3c pistol in a carry-on bag for a traveler heading to the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. Officials said the traveler had 10 rounds loaded and had an extra 10 rounds in the carry-on bag. TSA said officers have found a total of nine guns in the month of October alone at BOI. Travelers who bring a firearm in carry-on luggage can face a stiff federal financial civil penalty, punishable by a fine of up to $14,950, depending on the circumstances. "Among the factors TSA considers when determining the civil penalty amount include whether the firearm was loaded and whether there was accessible ammunition," TSA said in a news release. "Even if a traveler has a concealed weapons permit, firearms are not permitted in carry-on luggage." According to TSA at BOI, passengers may only travel with a firearm if it meets the following criteria: • May travel in checked baggage only. • Gun must be unloaded. • Firearm must be packed in a hard-sided, locked case. • The locked case should be placed in a checked bag. • Airline employee must be informed of the gun at the airline ticket counter. https://www.ktvb.com/article/news/local/tsa-record-setting-guns-carry-luggage-boise-airport/277-7e7b6cd4-2ca9-4c73-8175-b3f272f66ddd Land an airplane using cellphone tech? Backup GPS system could make it possible ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — In an era where GPS guides everything from weekend road trips to commercial airline routes, a team of researchers is preparing for a worrying scenario: What happens when GPS fails? Their solution involves a creative combination of weather balloons, Styrofoam coolers, and radio waves from unexpected sources: cellphone towers. Picture this: A typical Styrofoam cooler dangling from a weather balloon, floating in the thin air where the blue of our atmosphere meets the blackness of space. While it might look like a science fair project, this unassuming container could hold the key to making air travel safer when GPS systems malfunction. Presenting their work at the Institute of Navigation GNSS+ conference, researchers from Sandia National Laboratories and The Ohio State University are developing an innovative backup navigation system for aircraft by harnessing something we rarely think about: the invisible web of radio signals that constantly surrounds us. Their experimental technology could serve as a safety net when GPS — the system we’ve come to rely on for everything from landing planes to finding the nearest coffee shop — becomes unreliable. “We’re not trying to replace GPS,” explains Jennifer Sanderson, the lead researcher at Sandia, in a media release. “We’re just trying to assist it in situations where it’s degraded or compromised,” situations that can put pilots and passengers at risk. The need for a backup system is more pressing than you might think. While GPS has become the gold standard for navigation, it’s not invulnerable. Pilots flying near conflict zones increasingly find their GPS systems disrupted or unreliable. Even closer to home, illegal “jammers” — devices that flood GPS frequencies with meaningless signals — can be purchased online despite being against the law. Perhaps more worrying is a technique called “spoofing,” where fake GPS signals trick receivers into showing incorrect locations. If this sounds far-fetched, consider this: the same technology is already being used by players trying to cheat at Pokémon Go. “There are actual apps you can download that allow you to spoof your location, and entire subreddits dedicated to showing you how to use it for various games,” Sanderson notes. While harmless in a mobile game, this technology could have serious consequences if used against aircraft. The research team’s approach is ingenious in its simplicity: instead of relying solely on GPS satellites, why not use the countless other radio signals already floating through our skies? Cellphone towers and non-GPS communications satellites constantly emit radio frequency waves that could serve as navigation beacons. To test this idea, the team sent their experimental equipment skyward via weather balloon, reaching heights of up to 80,000 feet — about 15 miles up. That’s roughly three times higher than commercial aircraft typically fly and far higher than previous studies that only reached 5,000 to 7,000 feet. Their equipment, housed in that ordinary-looking Styrofoam cooler, included specialized antennas designed to detect and measure various radio signals. By analyzing how these radio waves become compressed or stretched as they travel (known as the Doppler effect — the same phenomenon that makes a passing ambulance siren change pitch), the researchers can potentially calculate an aircraft’s position and speed. The early results have been promising. “While we are still processing the flight data, we believe our preliminary findings indicate that we detected cell tower signal beacons at our peak altitude of about 82,000 feet,” Sanderson says. “If these signals are clean enough for navigation, it will significantly change what we thought was possible for alternative navigation.” The Road Ahead The research is still in its early stages. Currently, the team must manually match received signals to their sources using reference data — a tedious process that will need to be automated before the system can be used in real-world situations. “The not-sexy but very important side of navigation is understanding all your error sources,” Sanderson explains. However, the potential impact of this work extends far beyond aviation. Our modern society has become deeply dependent on GPS for everything from farming to financial markets. Having a reliable backup system could help prevent widespread disruption if GPS services were to fail. While your next flight probably won’t be navigating by cell phone towers just yet, this innovative research shows that solutions to complex problems might be hiding in plain sight — or in this case, floating in the signals all around us. https://studyfinds.org/can-you-land-plane-with-phone/ Dyess Air Force Base approved as B-21 bomber aircraft operating base The U.S. Air Force announced Dyess Air Force Base as its third B-21 Raider base. The Secretary of the Air Force approved the second and third basing locations for the nation's newest bomber aircraft, according to a recent release. The selection followed rigorous environmental inspections conducted at each of the bases throughout the past year. Dyess AFB will serve as the third main operating base. Whiteman AFB in Missouri was selected as the second base. The Department of Defense unveiled a new bomber aircraft in Dec. 2022. The B-21 "Raider" will replace the U.S. Air Force's B-1 and B-2 aircrafts and deliver both conventional and nuclear munitions. More:How will the Air Force's initiative for a new stealth bomber affect Dyess and Abilene? Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota was previously selected as the first main operating base in June 2021. "The B-21 Raider represents a generational leap as a dual nuclear and conventionally capable, stealth, penetrating, long-range strike platform," the Sept. 21 release stated. The Air Force plans to purchase a minimum of 100 bombers for the B-21 program. Until the aircrafts are delivered in the mid-2020s, Air Force Global Strike will keep its B-1 and B-2 bombers in service. During a Sept. 18 panel at the Air and Space Force Association's Air, Space and Cyber Conference, the B-21 program was said to be progressing, recently passing structural integrity testing and moving forward with fatigue testing. https://www.reporternews.com/story/news/2024/10/23/dyess-air-force-base-approved-for-new-bomber-aircraft-beddown/75806490007/ GE Partners With Lilium Jet On eVTOL Data Platforms The developmental Lilium Jet design is an all-electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) jet aircraft. GE Aerospace announced today it is joining with Munich, Germany-based Regional Air Mobility (RAM) developer Lilium “to build a solid safety foundation for this exciting new mode of travel.” With 1,000 employees (500 engineers), Lilium will share flight data and analytic platforms with U.S.-based GE, which boasts 52,000 employees worldwide. Plans for the partnership include OEM-level (original equipment manufacturer) Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) and Flight Operations Quality Assurance (FOQA) programs. The data-collection platforms are designed to establish a voluntary FDM program for Lilium’s customers and to monitor eVTOL [electric Vertical Take Off and Landing] safety “at a fleet-wide level.” Dominique Decard, V-P of Fleet Operations, Support, and Services at Lilium, said, “Flight data monitoring at a fleetwide level is a key component of our aftermarket services offering for operators. Collaborating with GE today will allow us to deploy the technology to support our flight test campaign.” Andrew Coleman, General Manager of GE Aerospace’s Software as a Service (SaaS) Group, said, “Aviation regulators in Europe and the US are rightly setting the highest bar for eVTOLs to meet in safety standards and regulations. Together with Lilium, we’re bringing together OEM-level flight data monitoring and quality assurance capabilities of [GE’s] EMS (Event Management System] with Lilium’s eVTOL jet-related analytics platform to establish a robust safety foundation for eVTOL industry that will help to accelerate commercial-scale adoption of this exciting new technology.” https://www.avweb.com/aviation-news/ge-links-up-with-regional-air-mobility-hopeful-lilium/ CALENDAR OF EVENTS • 2024 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition - Oct. 22-24 (Vegas) • INTERNATIONAL AVIATION SAFETY SUMMIT - November 5 - 7, 2024 (Rio De Janeiro) • NATA’s Aviation Business Conference (ABC) - November 12-13,2024, Nashville, TN • Elevate Your Organization's Safety Practices with ERAU’s SMS Course in Daytona Beach Nov. 19-21 • The Gulf Flight Safety Association (GFSA) - 26/27 of November 2024; Manama, Bahrain • Sponsor the 2025 Fuzion Safety Conference! March 4 & 5, 2025 (Orlando) • Annual Women in Aviation International Conference, Gaylord Rockies Resort & Conference Center | Denver Colorado, March 27-29, 2025 • AIA Conference: The Aviation Insurance Association's annual conference in Orlando, Florida from April 25–28, 2025 • Sixth Edition of International Accident Investigation Forum, 21 to 23 May 2025, Singapore • The 9th Shanghai International Aerospace Technology and Equipment Exposition 2025; June 11 to 13, 2025 Curt Lewis