Reversing Overruns
Canadian airports need the longer runways being proposed by Transport Canada (TC) as a defense against runway overruns, which occur about once a month, Wendy Tadros, head of the Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB), says.
Tadros said, in an article in the Canadian Skies e-newsletter, that Canada’s current regulatory standards are “disappointing” in that they lag behind international standards and best practices.
The current Canadian requirement calls for a 60-m (197-ft) buffer at the end of any runway that is 800 m (2,625 ft) or longer and recommends an additional 90-m (295-ft) runway end safety area (RESA) for runways that are 1,200 m (3,937 ft) or longer. The International Civil Aviation Organization requires buffer strips of at least 150 m (492 ft) but suggests that 300-m (984-ft) buffer areas would be better.
Under a TC proposal, many runways at Canadian airports would be required to install 150-m RESAs. Some airports already have installed longer RESAs, including the Macdonald-Cartier International Airport in Ottawa, which installed 300-m RESAs at both ends of one runway in 2012 and plans similar work at another runway this year.
“While the TSB understands that solutions to overruns can be expensive, doing nothing may ultimately cost even more,” Tadros said, citing a Flight Safety Foundation study that found that, between 2005 and 2007, runway overruns cost the aviation industry $506 million a year in damage, delays associated with down time and litigation costs.
She said that reducing runway overruns across Canada “will take numerous lines of defence,” including improved measurement and reporting of runway surface friction, or installation of longer RESAs or arrestor beds.
Repair Station Oversight
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lacks “effective standardized processes for identifying deficiencies” at aircraft repair stations and for verifying that the deficiencies have been addressed, according to a report by a government watchdog agency.
The Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) said, in a report released in early May, that because of the lack of standardization, its inspectors found “numerous systemic discrepancies” at repair stations visited during its review of the FAA’s repair station oversight.
The FAA oversees operations at 4,800 aircraft repair stations used around the world by U.S. air carriers.
“We found that while FAA developed a risk assessment process to aid repair station inspectors in identifying areas of greatest concern, its oversight continues to emphasize completing mandatory inspections instead of targeting resources where they are needed, based on risk,” the OIG report said. “Less than half of its inspection elements are evaluated based on risk, and foreign repair stations are not inspected using a risk-based system.”
The report also said that the FAA has not followed through on a promise made five years ago to give inspectors national data analyses that would improve their ability to evaluate repair stations.
In addition, inspectors sometimes overlooked repair station problems and failed to check on whether previously identified problems had been addressed through corrective actions, the report said.
“For example, an FAA inspector determined that a repair station failed to maintain a current list of required mechanic training three years in a row, yet the inspector accepted the repair station’s corrective actions each time,” the report said.
The OIG issued nine recommendations for improvement, including implementation of a risk-based system for oversight of foreign repair stations, development of a standardized checklist, and enhanced training for inspectors.
The FAA concurred with all nine recommendations and said that it plans to implement a new oversight system in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1, 2014.
Laser-Strike Protection Sought
More than 12,000 aircraft laser strikes were reported in the United States between 1980 and 2011, with 88 percent involving airplanes, according to a report by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI).
About 18 percent of the laser strikes (also called illuminations) involving airplanes occurred in the so-called Laser-Free Zone of 2,000 ft or below, while 70 percent of helicopter strikes occurred in that zone, the CAMI report said.
Helicopter crewmembers were more likely than their counterparts in airplanes to report adverse effects stemming from laser strikes within the Laser-Free Zone, the report said. This may be, in part, because the large bubble canopies on helicopters can allow more light to enter and reflect throughout the cockpit, the report said.
The report’s authors said that because of their findings, as well as the nature of helicopter operations, “special protective and preventative measures may be needed for helicopters and other low-flying aircraft outside of designated airport flight hazard zones due to the higher percentage of illuminations reported and the increased rate of adverse effects associated with these events.”
Their recommendations also suggested that authorities consider equipping helicopters, especially those operated by law enforcement personnel, with laser-detection and laser-tracking equipment “to improve the possibility of apprehending perpetrators of these offenses.”
Continued monitoring of laser strikes will provide information to help determine whether laser technologies are changing in ways that could warrant policy changes to better protect pilots, the report said.
The report’s authors said that because of their findings, as well as the nature of helicopter operations, “special protective and preventative measures may be needed for helicopters and other low-flying aircraft outside of designated airport flight hazard zones due to the higher percentage of illuminations reported and the increased rate of adverse effects associated with these events.”
Their recommendations also suggested that authorities consider equipping helicopters, especially those operated by law enforcement personnel, with laser-detection and laser-tracking equipment “to improve the possibility of apprehending perpetrators of these offenses.”
Continued monitoring of laser strikes will provide information to help determine whether laser technologies are changing in ways that could warrant policy changes to better protect pilots, the report said.
Autorotation Aid
The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), citing the Aug. 26, 2011, crash of a Eurocopter AS350 B2 that lost engine power because of fuel exhaustion, says pilots should be given more information about successful autorotations.
The NTSB issued nine safety recommendations as a result of its investigation of the accident, including several dealing with mitigating pilot distractions and others that discussed the best way of entering an autorotation.
One recommendation called on the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to “inform pilots of helicopters with low-inertia rotor systems about the circumstances of this accident … and advise them of the importance of simultaneously applying aft cyclic and down collective to achieve a successful autorotation entry at cruise airspeeds.”
The accident occurred about 1 nm (2 km) short of the Midwest National Air Center in Mosby, Missouri, U.S., when the engines lost power “and the pilot of the emergency medical services helicopter did not make the flight control inputs necessary to enter an autorotation, which resulted in a rapid decay in rotor rpm,” the NTSB said.
The patient, flight nurse, flight paramedic and pilot were killed in the crash. The NTSB said the probable causes, in addition to the pilot’s failure to successfully enter an autorotation, were his “failure to confirm that the helicopter had adequate fuel on board to complete the mission before making the first departure [and] his improper decision to continue the mission and make a second departure after he became aware of a critically low fuel level.”
The NTSB also recommended that the FAA revise its Helicopter Flying Handbook “to include a discussion of the entry phase of autorotations that explains the factors affecting rotor rpm decay and informs pilots that immediate and simultaneous control inputs may be required to enter an autorotation.”
Proposed Penalties
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) says it has proposed $4 million in civil penalties against United Parcel Service (UPS) for failing to properly maintain four cargo airplanes and operating them while they were out of compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations.
UPS is accused of failing to comply with FAA-approved procedures for making structural repairs to two Douglas DC-8s and two McDonnell Douglas DC-11s. The four airplanes then were operated on more than 400 flights between October 2008 and June 2009, the FAA said.
“These violations stem from UPS’s failure to fully comply with the terms of a consent agreement in which the carrier agreed to inspect all aircraft in its fleet and compare actual repairs with maintenance records,” the FAA said. “This would have ensured the four aircraft were in compliance with the regulations.”
UPS has 30 days after it receives official notice of the proposed penalties to respond.
Weather Worries
Australian pilots and air traffic controllers are concerned about thunderstorm forecasting and “untimely fog forecasts” at Australia’s major airports, the Bureau of Meteorology says.
Nevertheless, the bureau says that an online survey, conducted in late 2012, found that 78 percent of respondents considered the agency’s forecasts “mostly or always accurate,” and 80 percent believed that they were timely. Terminal area forecasts and trend forecasts were the most widely used services, and 80 percent of respondents said they also used airport weather briefings.
The bureau says it is taking steps to improve thunderstorm forecasting through scientific research into enhancing short-range forecasts, as well as increased cooperation with the aviation industry to “improve the aircraft meteorological data relay sensors fitted to aircraft.”
In addition, a five-year program is under way to improve the accuracy of fog forecasts, the bureau says.
SESAR Deployment
The European Commission has taken steps to encourage the “effective and timely” transition to the Single European Sky Air Traffic Management Research (SESAR) program designed to upgrade the air traffic management (ATM) system in Europe.
The commission adopted a regulation specifying four broad areas where action must be taken to support SESAR’s deployment. Among the four are common projects “to ensure the deployment of ATM functionalities,” government mechanisms for timely deployment of SESAR, deployment programs to “translate common projects into detailed deployment activities” and targeted incentives for the coordination and implementation of those projects.
The commission also revised regulations associated with implementing the SES performance scheme, which establishes a framework for determining targets for the delivery of better air navigation services.
“Now that the framework is set, we will focus our efforts on the adoption, by the end of this year, of realistic and ambitious targets to enable real progress … in particular in terms of cost reduction,” said Siim Kallas, European Commission vice president responsible for transport.
In Other News …
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has ended the furloughs of air traffic controllers whose work schedules had been curtailed because of cuts in the federal budget. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said a transfer of government funds made it possible to end the furloughs and to keep open — at least through September — 149 air traffic control towers that had been scheduled to close in June. … The International Civil Aviation Organization and The International Air Cargo Association have signed an agreement to bolster their cooperation in several technical areas, including efforts to improve air cargo safety.
Compiled and edited by Linda Werfelman.