Cracks in the Wings of the A380 – What Next?
On 08/01/2012, in Safety is no accident, by steve
Poor A380.
She had a difficult birth caused in no small measure by the rather peculiar corporate structure of Airbus and the consequent mismatch of the design software used in different parts of the company… Wire harnesses turned out to be too short, then the redesigned version did not fit either. After long delays she finally took to the air only to have an engine explode mid-flight. Now come the news that Qantas and Singapore airlines have reassured their passengers that there was no risk to safety from the cracks found on the wings of several A380s.
Well, what else did you expect them to say?
Airbus calls the cracks “minor” and confirmed that they were not a cause for concern. They also published a recommended way to repair them.
The cracking, about one centimeter long and almost invisible to the naked eye, was found while the Qantas aircraft on which the engine blew up was being repaired. The investigators say that the cracking was unrelated to the engine incident.
Singapore airlines have announced that they have also found cracks on the wings of two of their 380s.
Click here to read the full article
EASA Annual Safety Review – 2010
On 03/08/2011, in Safety is no accident, by steve
2010 was special for air safety. For the first time ever, no fatal accident occured in Europe in aeroplane and helicopter operations. Nevertheless, the Annual Safety Review from by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), published to inform the public of the general safety level in the field of civil aviation, is interesting reading. Non-fatal accidents are also the source of important information about where improvements are still necessary and possible.
You can download a copy here.
To access the on-line version, click here.
Quote of February 2011
On 01/02/2011, in Quote of the month, by steve
Aviation, to an even greater extent than the sea, is unforgiving of any incapacity, carelessness or neglect.
Air safety slogan.
Great potential in addressing the quality of the runways
On 28/01/2011, in Life around runways, by steve
Armann Norheim, Rapporteur of the ICAO Friction Task Force speaks to Bryan
Camoens on the issues facing airfields around the globe, wet weather conditions and how
maintainence and planning schedules should be set.
Bryan Camoens:
What are some of the issues that airfields are facing across the globe?
Armann Norheim:
Increased focus on safety areas (RESA). There has been a growing awareness among regulators of the fact that operations on wet and contaminated runways do not have the desired safety level and this has brought the quality of safety areas into sharp focus.
Bryan Camoens:
Could you please elaborate on some of the challenges and solutions for airfield expansion and renewal projects?
Armann Norheim:
Airports built before today’s safety standards and recommendations came into effect might find themselves in situation with no room available to expand. The reason for this can be topographic or built in by expanding urban areas. An emerging solution to this problem related to safety areas is the new technology of Engineered Materials Arresting Systems (EMAS) for aircraft overruns.
Bryan Camoens:
What key issues need to be taken into account when attempting to maximise safety and efficiency for airports?
Armann Norheim:
Appropriate safety areas dimensioned and free for obstacles to meet the operational requirements of the aeroplanes for which the runway is intended. With appropriate safety areas the airliners can utilise the full potential payload of their aircrafts. (Reduced/lack of safety areas should result in reduced published declared distances, TORA, LDA).
Click here to read the full article
Goodies for the fight against runway incursions
On 24/01/2011, in Life around runways, by steve
Although we hear the word runway excursion more often these days than runway incursion, these latter remain a problem and constant efforts are required to maintain the awareness of the dangers involved in stumbling on an active runway without clearance.
Training of pilots, air traffic controllers and vehicle drivers is essential of course. Additionally, posters in the crew room as well as folders and flyers on desks a great help for any runway incursion prevention campaign.
A while ago we created designs for bumper stickers you can put on airport vehicles, making the dangers of runway incursion visible in yet another powerful way.
We would like to share these designs with you. Feel free to use them at your airport. You can also read more about runway incursions here.
Even the bull stops at a red stop bar...
No question...
Click here to read the full article
Fatigue manifestations
On 29/11/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary.
The Operators Guide to Human Factors in Aviation (OGHFA) is a project of the Flight Safety Foundation European Advisory Committee. OGHFA is an extensive compendium of human factors information focused on further advancing commercial aviation safety.
The Briefing Note (BN) “Fatigue Manifestations” explores some of the causes, manifestations and consequences of pilot fatigue. It also outlines the basics of fatigue management and discusses how fatigue management is important to flight safety during both long-range flight (LRF) and short-range flight (SRF).
Read more about this important subject here.
EASA Safety Review 2009 published
On 24/08/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary.
EASA has published its annual safety review for 2009. The report includes an analysis of accident data for light aircraft; although the data is incomplete, because several member states did not report, it gives further insight into the safety challenges facing general aviation. “Loss of control In-flight” continues to be the most frequent accident category for general aviation and aerial work operations.
Download the report here.
2009 Aviation Safety Performance Data published by IATA
On 15/03/2010, in SKYbrary News, by steve
News from EUROCONTROL’s aviation safety knowledge base SKYbrary
2009′s accident rate for Western-built jet aircraft is the second lowest in aviation history.
The 2009 global accident rate (measured in hull losses per million flights of Western-built jet aircraft) was 0.71. That is equal to one accident for every 1.4 million flights. This is a significant improvement on the 0.81 rate recorded in 2008 (one accident per 1.2 million flights). The 2009 rate was the second lowest in aviation history, just above the 2006 rate of 0.65. Compared to 10 years ago, the accident rate has been cut 36% from the rate recorded in 2000.
Read more 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.
Safety briefing – the missing element
On 28/01/2010, in Battle stations, by steve
This blog is about air traffic management. But, by the nature of our business, we tend to travel more than the average citizen and the pilots among us spend half their life strapped to the aircraft that carry us around. So it is appropriate to say something for once as a passenger rather than the ATM expert I often claim to be.
I am one of those passengers who actually follows the safety briefing, checks the location of the emergency exits and who has actually studied the operation of the damn things. I would hate having to read the opening instructions with smoke filling the cabin… I never take off my shoes until we are at cruising level. And yes, I do check that my life vest is under my seat and yes, I did find an empty container once and complained before we were airborne.
Recently however I started missing something from the safety briefing. If you look at the statistics, the likelihood of needing my life vest is distinctly lower than the need to know what I should do in case the chap or gal sitting next to me turns out to have explosives in his or her pants and decides to use it too.
Click here to read the full article
Pilot fatigue – The views of the Flight Safety Foundation
On 25/12/2009, in View from the left seat, by pbn
The issue of fatigue in the cockpit, and outside it among maintenance personnel for example, has been on the agenda for some time now and
things were brought to a head by the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo on Feb. 12, 2009.
Predictably, the reactions are varied and range from the studied to the opportunistic. Clearly, something as complex as human fatigue can only be addressed on a scientific basis applied in the specific aviation context. Traditional ways of regulations and compliance monitoring may also need to be reviewed before they are pronounced as the solution to this very real problem.
For some airlines fatigue risk management is nothing new and they have long ago adjusted their crew scheduling and fatigue reporting practices to mitigate the risk as much as possible. For others, the task is still looming large.
Mr. William R. Voss, President and CEO of the Flight Safety Foundation gave a testimony on 1 December 2009 to the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Aviation Hearing on Aviation Safety: Pilot fatigue.
He too argues for a balanced and well reasoned approach, something that is scaleable to suit both major and smaller operators and points out that some measures that do not necessarily require a regulatory approach can be implemented now. Which is not to say that there is no need for new rules that reflect the latest scientific knowledge about fatigue and the risks it entails.
You can read the full text of the testimony here.
System Wide Information Management (SWIM) – Here and now
On 18/10/2009, in SWIM, by steve
That in ATM we are only now taking the first tentative steps to set the scene for the implementation of System Wide Information Management (SWIM) is not due in any way to SWIM being so complicated, it needing rocket science or yet to be invented technologies. Many an “expert” would make you believe this to be the case but it is not. We lost more than ten years due to ignorance and obfuscation but never mind, it is more important to look towards the future and it looks good for SWIM.
True, the SESAR target dates for SWIM are not as ambitious as they should and could be, but OK, one step at a time… At least officially SWIM is not in question any more.
In the meantime, if you want to have a first hand demonstration of SWIM at work in the aviation context, do the following.
Click here to read the full article
We need pro-active safety
On 10/10/2009, in Viewpoint, by steve
After two aircraft collided over Zagreb on 10 September 1976, authorities in the region started to scramble, speeding up the introduction of more modern ATC equipment. The Uberlingen mid-air in 2002 highlighted several shortcomings in pilot training as well as ATC practices. Then we jump to 2009 and a crash near Buffalo in the US reveals not only that the captain of that flight had withheld important information from the airline about his previous performance shortcomings but also that the crew was operating in a fatigued state that would normally be too much for driving a car let alone flying an aircraft. A few months later, an Air France Airbus 330 crashes into the Atlantic Ocean and even without the flight data recorders, authorities point to a possible failure of the Pitot tubes on the aircraft (and an apparent failure to heed earlier warning signs from other aircraft) and possible training shortcomings limiting the crew’s ability to deal with an extremely complicated situation.
What is going on here? Mind you, the airlines and air traffic services providers involved in these incidents have safety policies and practices that meet the industry expectations. Yet, somehow those policies and practices were undercut with disastrous consequences.
Click here to read the full article
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.
Towards a net-centric system
On 30/07/2009, in Buzzwords explained, by steve
In the numerous descriptions of the future air traffic management system, the term “net-centric” appears over and over. What does net-centric really mean and how will such a system improve safety and flight efficiency?
Watch this space for a forthcoming post on this fascinating subject, the latest in our series “Buzzwords explained”.
