Russian investigators are examining an Aeroflot Tupolev Tu-154, which aborted take-off from St Petersburg yesterday when one of its three engines suffered a serious failure.
Federal air transport agency Rosaviatsia says the incident occurred at 15:48 as the aircraft, departing for Moscow, was travelling at about 30kt.
At this point occurred the “destruction” of the left hand Soloviev D-30 powerplant, it states, and the crew experienced a “strong shock”. The engine had been operating within normal thrust limits at the time.
Extinguishing systems were operated and there was no fire. The pilots aborted the take-off roll and positioned the aircraft on a remote stand.
None of the 103 passengers and nine crewmembers was injured, says Rosaviatsia, but the aircraft has sustained damage. It has not identified the specific airframe involved in the incident.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 02/07/2008.
quarta-feira, 2 de julho de 2008
Nine dead in Siberian helicopter crash: officials
MOSCOW (AFP) — A civilian Mi-8 helicopter crashed in northwest Siberia on Wednesday killing at least nine people, Russia's Emergency Situations Ministry said.
"According to provisional information, there were 16 people on board, including three crew members. At least nine people died," ministry spokeswoman Natalya Lukash told AFP.
The Mi-8 helicopter operated by civilian airline UT-Air crashed in the oil-rich Yamalo-Nenets region of northwest Siberia, Lukash said.
Interfax news agency quoted a Federal Air Transport Agency official as saying there were only 13 people on board, but confirming the toll of nine dead. The official said one person was seriously injured and three suffered only minor injuries.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
ITAR-TASS news agency reported that the helicopter caught fire after crashing en route from the city of Noyabrsk to the Varginskoye oil field.
A Soviet-era workhorse, the Russian-built Mi-8 helicopter can carry up to 20 people and is widely used to transport passengers and supplies to remote sites in Siberia.
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 02/07/2008.
"According to provisional information, there were 16 people on board, including three crew members. At least nine people died," ministry spokeswoman Natalya Lukash told AFP.
The Mi-8 helicopter operated by civilian airline UT-Air crashed in the oil-rich Yamalo-Nenets region of northwest Siberia, Lukash said.
Interfax news agency quoted a Federal Air Transport Agency official as saying there were only 13 people on board, but confirming the toll of nine dead. The official said one person was seriously injured and three suffered only minor injuries.
The cause of the crash was not immediately clear.
ITAR-TASS news agency reported that the helicopter caught fire after crashing en route from the city of Noyabrsk to the Varginskoye oil field.
A Soviet-era workhorse, the Russian-built Mi-8 helicopter can carry up to 20 people and is widely used to transport passengers and supplies to remote sites in Siberia.
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 02/07/2008.
Medical Helicopter Crashes Stir Concern
JUNE 29 - A fire broke out after two medical helicopters collided in Flagstaff, Ariz., killing six people. Sixteen people have died this year in medical helicopter crashes.
The fatal collision Sunday between two medical helicopters in Arizona was the sixth crash involving the emergency helicopters since May, making the last two months one of the deadliest periods in the history of the fast-growing industry.
JUNE 27 - An official examines a medical helicopter that crashed 30 miles outside Prescott, Ariz., injuring three crewmembers.
MAY 29 - A helicopter crashed on a hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., forcing the evacuation of maternity patients.
Sixteen people have died this year in seven crashes, which involved eight helicopters, according to federal data. Thirteen of the deaths have come since May.
About 750 medical helicopters are operating in this country, about twice the number flying a decade ago. Medical helicopters were once operated mostly by hospitals, but in recent years private companies, including some that are publicly traded, have come to dominate the industry.
The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Mark Rosenker, said the agency was greatly concerned about the spate of crashes. The board began to investigate the industry after a rash of accidents in 2004 and 2005.
In a report in 2006, it found that operators had failed to develop comprehensive flight risk programs, and that pilots often did not have adequate information about bad weather they might have encountered or equipment to alert them to dangerous terrain.
The board called for stricter flight rules and improved accident-avoidance equipment, among other recommendations.
The Federal Aviation Administration accepted all of the board’s recommendations, Mr. Rosenker said, but has put only some of them into effect.
“The latest spate of accidents has given the board concern that the F.A.A. may not be moving as quickly as necessary,” Mr. Rosenker said in a telephone interview on Monday evening.
Earlier on Monday, Mr. Rosenker told reporters in Flagstaff, Ariz., where the two helicopters collided on Sunday, that “we saw a small reduction” in accidents for a time. “But of late, we have started to see a trend that has brought it back to a disturbing level,” he said. Six people were killed and one critically injured in the crash, which occurred as each helicopter was on its final approach to Flagstaff Medical Center.
An F.A.A. spokeswoman said the recent accidents had stirred “attention and concern” in the agency. The changes it is putting into effect could include new weather requirements for flights and stricter rules for pilot instrument competency.
Some industry critics have questioned whether companies eager to profit from flights are sending helicopters to pick up patients who could have been transported more cheaply, and at less risk, by ground ambulance.
“The vast majority of patients could have done well in a ground ambulance,” said Dr. Bryan Bledsoe, a former flight paramedic who is a professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. “There is pressure to fly because most companies are owned by publicly owned entities.”
Aaron D. Todd, the chief executive of the Air Methods Corporation, the largest operator of medical helicopters in this country and the owner of one of those that crashed on Sunday, said the industry had made major safety strides in recent years. Mr. Todd also said it had been hard to buy some safety equipment, like night-vision goggles, because most of those supplies are going to troops in Iraq.
Mr. Todd and other industry officials said they were puzzled by the recent spate of crashes because there did not seem to be a common thread. Some occurred at night and others during the day; some were in inclement weather and others, like Sunday’s, were in sunny skies with calm winds.
Dawn Mancuso, the executive director of the Association of Air Medical Services, based in Alexandria, Va., said in a telephone interview that officials of her organization hoped to meet next week with the F.A.A. and to hold an industry meeting on safety soon.
Both helicopters in the crash on Sunday were Bell 407 models, the F.A.A. said. One, which landed on a mesa on the outskirts of Flagstaff, set off a wildfire that spread over 15 acres and took firefighters 90 minutes to contain.
Two days earlier, a medical helicopter crashed 30 miles outside Prescott, Ariz., injuring the three-crew members, one of them seriously. In early June, four people were killed when a medical helicopter crashed near Huntsville, Tex.
Three people were killed in May when a medical helicopter crashed near La Crosse, Wis., and another three died in a crash in February of a medical helicopter off South Padre Island in Texas.
In late May, maternity patients in Grand Rapids, Mich., had to be evacuated after a medical helicopter crashed on a hospital’s roof.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/us/01copter.html?hp
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 02/07/2008
The fatal collision Sunday between two medical helicopters in Arizona was the sixth crash involving the emergency helicopters since May, making the last two months one of the deadliest periods in the history of the fast-growing industry.
JUNE 27 - An official examines a medical helicopter that crashed 30 miles outside Prescott, Ariz., injuring three crewmembers.
MAY 29 - A helicopter crashed on a hospital in Grand Rapids, Mich., forcing the evacuation of maternity patients.
Sixteen people have died this year in seven crashes, which involved eight helicopters, according to federal data. Thirteen of the deaths have come since May.
About 750 medical helicopters are operating in this country, about twice the number flying a decade ago. Medical helicopters were once operated mostly by hospitals, but in recent years private companies, including some that are publicly traded, have come to dominate the industry.
The chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, Mark Rosenker, said the agency was greatly concerned about the spate of crashes. The board began to investigate the industry after a rash of accidents in 2004 and 2005.
In a report in 2006, it found that operators had failed to develop comprehensive flight risk programs, and that pilots often did not have adequate information about bad weather they might have encountered or equipment to alert them to dangerous terrain.
The board called for stricter flight rules and improved accident-avoidance equipment, among other recommendations.
The Federal Aviation Administration accepted all of the board’s recommendations, Mr. Rosenker said, but has put only some of them into effect.
“The latest spate of accidents has given the board concern that the F.A.A. may not be moving as quickly as necessary,” Mr. Rosenker said in a telephone interview on Monday evening.
Earlier on Monday, Mr. Rosenker told reporters in Flagstaff, Ariz., where the two helicopters collided on Sunday, that “we saw a small reduction” in accidents for a time. “But of late, we have started to see a trend that has brought it back to a disturbing level,” he said. Six people were killed and one critically injured in the crash, which occurred as each helicopter was on its final approach to Flagstaff Medical Center.
An F.A.A. spokeswoman said the recent accidents had stirred “attention and concern” in the agency. The changes it is putting into effect could include new weather requirements for flights and stricter rules for pilot instrument competency.
Some industry critics have questioned whether companies eager to profit from flights are sending helicopters to pick up patients who could have been transported more cheaply, and at less risk, by ground ambulance.
“The vast majority of patients could have done well in a ground ambulance,” said Dr. Bryan Bledsoe, a former flight paramedic who is a professor at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. “There is pressure to fly because most companies are owned by publicly owned entities.”
Aaron D. Todd, the chief executive of the Air Methods Corporation, the largest operator of medical helicopters in this country and the owner of one of those that crashed on Sunday, said the industry had made major safety strides in recent years. Mr. Todd also said it had been hard to buy some safety equipment, like night-vision goggles, because most of those supplies are going to troops in Iraq.
Mr. Todd and other industry officials said they were puzzled by the recent spate of crashes because there did not seem to be a common thread. Some occurred at night and others during the day; some were in inclement weather and others, like Sunday’s, were in sunny skies with calm winds.
Dawn Mancuso, the executive director of the Association of Air Medical Services, based in Alexandria, Va., said in a telephone interview that officials of her organization hoped to meet next week with the F.A.A. and to hold an industry meeting on safety soon.
Both helicopters in the crash on Sunday were Bell 407 models, the F.A.A. said. One, which landed on a mesa on the outskirts of Flagstaff, set off a wildfire that spread over 15 acres and took firefighters 90 minutes to contain.
Two days earlier, a medical helicopter crashed 30 miles outside Prescott, Ariz., injuring the three-crew members, one of them seriously. In early June, four people were killed when a medical helicopter crashed near Huntsville, Tex.
Three people were killed in May when a medical helicopter crashed near La Crosse, Wis., and another three died in a crash in February of a medical helicopter off South Padre Island in Texas.
In late May, maternity patients in Grand Rapids, Mich., had to be evacuated after a medical helicopter crashed on a hospital’s roof.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/us/01copter.html?hp
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 02/07/2008
terça-feira, 1 de julho de 2008
3 Continental flight attendants injured during flight
Three Continental Airlines flight attendants suffered minor injures after a plane from Houston to Fort Lauderdale hit a patch of turbulence Monday afternoon, authorities said.
Rescue crews received a call about 3:45 p.m. that three female flight attendants, ages 21, 51 and 55, working aboard Continental Airlines flight 1448 had been injured after plane hit a jolt of turbulence, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.
The plane was traveling at an altitude of 31,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico when the incident occurred and the flight attendants were working in the cabin at the time and were tossed around, hitting compartments or falling down, Jachles, who spoke with the plane's pilot, said.
After arriving at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the flight attendants were taken to Broward General Medical Center for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, Jachles said.
No passengers on the flight were injured.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5864897.html
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
Rescue crews received a call about 3:45 p.m. that three female flight attendants, ages 21, 51 and 55, working aboard Continental Airlines flight 1448 had been injured after plane hit a jolt of turbulence, said Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue spokesman Mike Jachles.
The plane was traveling at an altitude of 31,000 feet over the Gulf of Mexico when the incident occurred and the flight attendants were working in the cabin at the time and were tossed around, hitting compartments or falling down, Jachles, who spoke with the plane's pilot, said.
After arriving at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport, the flight attendants were taken to Broward General Medical Center for treatment of non-life threatening injuries, Jachles said.
No passengers on the flight were injured.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/5864897.html
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
Jet en route to Japan makes emergency landing with engine problems
CHICAGO: An All Nippon Airways flight (Boeing 777) bound for Japan had to dump its fuel over Lake Michigan and return to Chicago for an emergency landing after one of its engines malfunctioned.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory says it initially appeared that birds in the engine caused the problem. But she says a preliminary investigation indicates the failure of an engine part was likely the cause.
She says the pilot followed a standard procedure and dumped fuel over the lake Monday before landing at O'Hare International Airport about 50 minutes later.
There were no reports of injuries on the plane. Chicago Aviation Department spokesman Gregg Cunningham says it was carrying 189 passengers and crew.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/30/america/NA-GEN-US-Chicago-Emergency-Landing.php
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory says it initially appeared that birds in the engine caused the problem. But she says a preliminary investigation indicates the failure of an engine part was likely the cause.
She says the pilot followed a standard procedure and dumped fuel over the lake Monday before landing at O'Hare International Airport about 50 minutes later.
There were no reports of injuries on the plane. Chicago Aviation Department spokesman Gregg Cunningham says it was carrying 189 passengers and crew.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/06/30/america/NA-GEN-US-Chicago-Emergency-Landing.php
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
FAA Under Scrutiny For Airline Maintenance Lapses
DOT Inspectors Visit American Airlines
The FAA is facing a wide-ranging investigation into recent maintenance troubles at airlines. The Washington Post quotes the Department of Transportation's inspector general in reporting the probe was prompted by congressional criticism of the FAA.
The office of inspector general would not name the one airline it says is being targeted in particular, but pilots and American Airlines officials report the IG staff has been focused on that carrier in recent weeks.
American came under fire in the wake of revelations involving FAA inspections at its cross-town competitor, Southwest Airlines. The FAA admitted earlier this year its inspectors improperly allowed Southwest Airlines to fly approximately 45 jets in need of key safety checks.
The inspector general is expected to release a report on that case soon. "We will certainly work with the inspector general as they go through their audits," FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said,
Though Southwest was fined $10.2 million in the aftermath of that incident, the carrier's operations were impacted only slightly. That wasn't the case weeks later at American, however, when that carrier was forced to ground its entire fleet of MD-82 and MD-83 aircraft for wiring inspections. Those groundings resulted in over 3,300 cancelled flights, and some 350,000 stranded passengers.
American says the FAA forced those cancellations... an accusation the agency has downplayed in the past. Spokesman John Hotard confirmed officials with the DOT recently visited the carrier's Fort Worth, TX headquarters... but added he expects inspector found few, if any, problems.
"We've got the most experienced and well-trained workforce in the industry, and we not only maintain our aircraft but we maintain other airlines' aircraft as well," Hotard said.
FMI: www.oig.dot.gov/, www.aa.com, www.southwest.com
aero-news.net
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
The FAA is facing a wide-ranging investigation into recent maintenance troubles at airlines. The Washington Post quotes the Department of Transportation's inspector general in reporting the probe was prompted by congressional criticism of the FAA.
The office of inspector general would not name the one airline it says is being targeted in particular, but pilots and American Airlines officials report the IG staff has been focused on that carrier in recent weeks.
American came under fire in the wake of revelations involving FAA inspections at its cross-town competitor, Southwest Airlines. The FAA admitted earlier this year its inspectors improperly allowed Southwest Airlines to fly approximately 45 jets in need of key safety checks.
The inspector general is expected to release a report on that case soon. "We will certainly work with the inspector general as they go through their audits," FAA spokeswoman Diane Spitaliere said,
Though Southwest was fined $10.2 million in the aftermath of that incident, the carrier's operations were impacted only slightly. That wasn't the case weeks later at American, however, when that carrier was forced to ground its entire fleet of MD-82 and MD-83 aircraft for wiring inspections. Those groundings resulted in over 3,300 cancelled flights, and some 350,000 stranded passengers.
American says the FAA forced those cancellations... an accusation the agency has downplayed in the past. Spokesman John Hotard confirmed officials with the DOT recently visited the carrier's Fort Worth, TX headquarters... but added he expects inspector found few, if any, problems.
"We've got the most experienced and well-trained workforce in the industry, and we not only maintain our aircraft but we maintain other airlines' aircraft as well," Hotard said.
FMI: www.oig.dot.gov/, www.aa.com, www.southwest.com
aero-news.net
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
Frequent U.S. Air-Collision Warnings Spur Scrutiny
Foreign pilots are reporting unusually frequent warnings from airplane collision-avoidance systems around some large U.S. airports, prompting safety experts to consider possible changes in some air-traffic patterns, according to government and industry officials.
The issue was revealed at an industry conference in June, when representatives of foreign airlines said preliminary data indicated that the rate of ant collision warnings near certain U.S. hubs was many times higher than levels typically experienced around busy European hubs.
Vincent DeVroey, a senior official with the Association of European Airlines, told a U.S.-European air-safety conference that higher-than-expected warning rates were seen around international airports in Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and elsewhere.
Safety experts are reconsidering air-traffic patterns around busy U.S. airports such as Los Angeles after high numbers of collision warnings.
A representative of the International Air Transport Association, an industry group representing carriers globally, supported the European numbers and said some Asian carriers have collected similar data from flights into the U.S.
Neither the FAA nor industry groups have made any final determinations about whether changes are warranted.
The data are tentative and are still being analyzed by the U.S. government, industry suppliers and airport officials. It is too early to tell whether there is a significant safety hazard, according to U.S. government and industry officials. But the complaints have prompted increased scrutiny at the Federal Aviation Administration, which has taken up the issue and asked outside experts to help assess whether certain approach and landing patterns unduly add to the number of "nuisance" warnings, according to industry officials.
An FAA spokesman declined to comment. It isn't clear whether the FAA's own data back up assertions that, by some measures, airborne ant collision warnings in some U.S. regions are 30 times more frequent than in parts of Europe.
After the conference, one U.S. industry official familiar with the details said that the average U.S. airborne-warning rate was between three and 10 times higher than around some European hubs. "We're studying the data to see if some changes are in order," the official said.
Airborne collision-avoidance systems are designed to warn pilots when two planes are on a collision course. In the event of emergencies, pilots are trained to take evasive maneuvers when ordered by computerized cockpit instruments, rather than wait for directions from air-traffic controllers. In some cases, according to IATA officials, European pilots have broken off landing approaches in the U.S. due to collision warnings and then been criticized by angry controllers for complicating the flow of traffic during busy periods.
In the U.S., there has never been a midair collision involving a commercial jet equipped with advanced airborne collision-warning systems. Such systems have been steadily improved over the years to make them more accurate and less prone to issue "nuisance" warnings, though the complaints have prompted another reassessment of the technology.
The ant collision systems aren't likely to be part of the equation in Sunday's deadly helicopter collision in Arizona, in which two medical helicopters were trying to land at a hospital. The warning systems are typically used aboard fixed-wing planes to avoid conflicts in busy airport terminal areas. Helicopters tend to operate at lower altitudes and face threats such as running into hillsides, towers or other obstacles.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121483279137815741.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
The issue was revealed at an industry conference in June, when representatives of foreign airlines said preliminary data indicated that the rate of ant collision warnings near certain U.S. hubs was many times higher than levels typically experienced around busy European hubs.
Vincent DeVroey, a senior official with the Association of European Airlines, told a U.S.-European air-safety conference that higher-than-expected warning rates were seen around international airports in Los Angeles, Denver, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Newark, N.J., and elsewhere.
Safety experts are reconsidering air-traffic patterns around busy U.S. airports such as Los Angeles after high numbers of collision warnings.
A representative of the International Air Transport Association, an industry group representing carriers globally, supported the European numbers and said some Asian carriers have collected similar data from flights into the U.S.
Neither the FAA nor industry groups have made any final determinations about whether changes are warranted.
The data are tentative and are still being analyzed by the U.S. government, industry suppliers and airport officials. It is too early to tell whether there is a significant safety hazard, according to U.S. government and industry officials. But the complaints have prompted increased scrutiny at the Federal Aviation Administration, which has taken up the issue and asked outside experts to help assess whether certain approach and landing patterns unduly add to the number of "nuisance" warnings, according to industry officials.
An FAA spokesman declined to comment. It isn't clear whether the FAA's own data back up assertions that, by some measures, airborne ant collision warnings in some U.S. regions are 30 times more frequent than in parts of Europe.
After the conference, one U.S. industry official familiar with the details said that the average U.S. airborne-warning rate was between three and 10 times higher than around some European hubs. "We're studying the data to see if some changes are in order," the official said.
Airborne collision-avoidance systems are designed to warn pilots when two planes are on a collision course. In the event of emergencies, pilots are trained to take evasive maneuvers when ordered by computerized cockpit instruments, rather than wait for directions from air-traffic controllers. In some cases, according to IATA officials, European pilots have broken off landing approaches in the U.S. due to collision warnings and then been criticized by angry controllers for complicating the flow of traffic during busy periods.
In the U.S., there has never been a midair collision involving a commercial jet equipped with advanced airborne collision-warning systems. Such systems have been steadily improved over the years to make them more accurate and less prone to issue "nuisance" warnings, though the complaints have prompted another reassessment of the technology.
The ant collision systems aren't likely to be part of the equation in Sunday's deadly helicopter collision in Arizona, in which two medical helicopters were trying to land at a hospital. The warning systems are typically used aboard fixed-wing planes to avoid conflicts in busy airport terminal areas. Helicopters tend to operate at lower altitudes and face threats such as running into hillsides, towers or other obstacles.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121483279137815741.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Fonte: Flight Safety Information 01/07/2008.
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