Beyond the runway end safety area
On 18/02/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
The consequences of many runway excursions, especially overruns, are made much more serious because the aircraft end up beyond the actual or nominal confines of the ICAO-defined Runway End Safety Area (RESA) and is catastrophically damaged because of major obstructions or terrain changes encountered soon after this protected area has been exceeded. Suddenly down-sloping terrain and low but substantial ground obstructions, which are of no concern to aircraft in flight, may take on considerable significance in determining the damage to an aircraft following a major overrun. The example of the Air France Airbus 340-300 which ended up in a ravine at Toronto in 2005 illustrates this well.
Read more about this subject in the SKYbrary here.
Read about Engineered Materials Arresting Systems (EMAS) here.
Ice contaminated tailplane stall – ICTS
On 11/02/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
The term “Ice Contaminated Tailplane Stall”, or ICTS, refers to those events that involve flow separation from the horizontal stabilizer due to ice accretion. A significant threat exists if the tail stall is confused with a main wing stall, as the recovery procedures are precisely opposite…
Read more about this here.
FAA Call to action on airline safety and pilot training
On 03/02/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
On February 12, 2009, a Colgan Air Bombardier Dash-8 Q400, operating as Continental Connection Flight 3407, crashed while on approach to Buffalo, New York.
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) conducted a public hearing on this accident from May 12-14, 2009. During that hearing and subsequent congressional hearings on June 10 and June 11, 2009, several issues came to light regarding pilot training and qualifications, flight crew fatigue, and consistency of safety standards between operators.
In response to this information, on June 15, 2009, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and FAA Administrator J. Randolph Babbitt initiated a Call to Action on Airline Safety and Pilot Training for FAA, air carriers, and labor organizations to jointly identify and implement safety improvements, and an action plan was published on 24 June 2009.
The FAA has just published a progress report entitled FAA “Answering the Call to Action on Airline Safety & Pilot Training”.
You can get the progress report here.
Air France 447 – Second Interim Report published. Cause still unknown.
On 18/12/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
The loss of AF447 over the Atlantic Ocean on 1 June 2009 is proving to be every bit the nightmare of accident investigators and safety experts alike. The French accident investigation bureau BEA has now published their second Interim Report which includes new findings and makes a number of safety recommendations but the cause of the accident remains undetermined.
Further investigation will be needed to figure out what exactly has happened on that fateful night. Accidents with their cause undetermined hang like a Damocles’ sword over the industry… We can try to initiate mitigating actions in a general sense but only focused action has a guarantee of hitting its target. It is exactly this target that is missing in cases with the cause undetermined and hence there is not much to focus on.
Luckily, not many accidents remain unsolved even if in some cases a repeat of the problem cannot be avoided before the cause is found. A famous case concerned the Boeing 737, two of which were lost to the same cause before the third one managed to land safely and the culprit (a part worth a few bucks but prone to freezing) was found.
Let’s hope AF447 will reveal its secrets soon…
You can read the AF447 Second Interim Report here.
Runway incursion prevention – know your hot spots
On 11/12/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’S aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
It is well known to pilots and air traffic controllers alike that some parts of the runway/taxiway complex at aerodromes seem to attract incidents. As if they were jinxed in some way, mistakes are made regularly at these singularities of the airport universe.
On roads internationally standardized traffic signs are used to warn us of falling rocks, of stray cattle or deer chasing their mates. How can we warn of the dangerous spots at airports?
TCAS Awareness
On 03/12/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
The latest addition to SKYbrary Solutions is “Clear of Conflict”, a series of 10 short videos developed by NATS in association with EUROCONTROL and Flight Safety International, intended as an aid to TCAS training.
Check out the videos here.
Military Interception Signalling
On 17/11/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
You may have read that the Northwest flight that sailed past its destination recently and was out of communications with ATC for quite a long time was about to be intercepted by fighters… In the distant past, such interceptions were fairly rare except in the communist parts of the world and the most notorious case was the shooting down of a Korean 747 by the Russians. Since the events of 9/11 military interception of aircraft not responding to calls from ATC has become fairly commonplace. Because of the security issues involved, the hazards associated with interceptions have increased substantially… those fighters do mean business and you better know what this is about or else…
Aircraft without harmful intent have nothing to fear of course but it is essential that the flight crew know exactly what to expect when intercepted and they must also be familiar with the signals used by the military aircraft. Knowing how to respond is also essential.
The SKYbrary can help you to refresh your knowledge of military interception signalling. Read their material on the subject here.
Bird Strike: Operator’s Checklist
On 05/10/2009, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
This is the time of year when birds all over Europe take to the air to start their journey south. Though they are the ultimate examples of Free Flight, migratory birds follow centuries old routes, resting at centuries old landing places, without much regard for their latter day kin… The risk of bird strikes increases as a result.
It is therefore a good time to review the bird strike hazard management procedures. Pick up the guide here.
SKYbrary to be further refined
On 15/09/2009, in SKYbrary News, by susanne
EUROCONTROL publishes SKYbrary, an electronic repository of safety data related to ATM and aviation safety in general. It is built of a hyperlinked network of articles and documents. The article is the building nucleus of the knowledge base. It can contain links to other related articles, to documents stored on the Skybrary bookshelf or to external safety data sources.
EUROCONTROL would like to further develop SKYbrary according to the safety information needs of the widest possible audience into “The single point of reference for aviation safety knowledge”.
Would you be kind enough and provide your feedback by first taking a few minutes to have a look at SKYbrary and then answering the questions in the survey. Your help is very much appreciated. Your opinion on SKYbrary will help to make it better.
Note: The survey is anonymous. All data gathered will be handled with the outmost care only by the SKYbrary team and will only be used to further develop SKYbrary.
