News
04 OCT - Australian CASA grounds Aero Tropics - again 11 OCT - NTSB issues safety recommendations on engine fan cowl separation prevention
14 OCT - CAA UK publishes State Safety Programme for the United Kingdom
14 OCT - U.S. FAA confirms Category 1 safety rating for South Africa
15 OCT - Indonesia suspends AOC of four airlines and reinstates AOC of four others
16 OCT - FAA expands runway status lights nationwide
17 OCT - NTSB issues urgent recommendation regarding PW2037 engines inspections
21 OCT - NTSB reverses FAA Revocation Order issued against Air Trek
22 OCT - Mokulele Airlines grounded for three hours after FAA inspection
04 OCT 2008 Australian CASA grounds Aero Tropics - again [to table of contents]
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) suspended the operations of Cairns-based airline Lip Air Pty Ltd on 3 October 2008.
Lip Air – which trades as Aero Tropics – was suspended because CASA believes there were, and are, serious and imminent risks to the safety of passengers travelling on the airline.
The airline has been grounded immediately and CASA will make an application to the Federal Court to maintain the suspension for a period sufficient to allow CASA to complete its investigations, up to a maximum of 40 days.
At the completion of its investigations into safety deficiencies at Lip Air, CASA may seek to cancel the airline's air operator's certificate.
CASA has been looking closely into safety problems at Lip Air since September 2007. The airline and key personnel have been subject to a number of actions by CASA, taken to achieve improvements in safety performance.
On 27 June 2008, CASA suspended Lip Air's air operator's certificate. The Federal Court lifted that suspension on 2 July 2008 after imposing conditions on Lip Air's operations.
CASA has since imposed a number of strict new conditions on the airline, and has been closely monitoring Lip Air's adherence to these conditions to ensure critical operational safety outcomes are achieved.
In recent days CASA has discovered further evidence that safety standards within Lip Air have deteriorated, posing an unacceptable risk to aviation safety.
CASA's safety concerns with Lip Air centre on the systems relating to training, checking and supervision of the company's pilots. (CASA)
media release
The National Transportation Safety Board has recently investigated several events in which engine fan cowls have separated during flight, causing damage to the airplanes involved. The Safety Board is concerned that the procedures for checking that engine fan cowls are latched properly are inadequate. The U.S. NTSB therefor recommends that the FAA: Require all operators of Airbus single-aisle and Bombardier CL-600 airplane models to revise existing aircraft maintenance manual procedures and maintenance inspection documents to require a dual inspection signoff to confirm that engine fan cowls are latched after completing any engine maintenance that involves the opening of an engine fan cowl. (A-08-79) Require all operators of Airbus single-aisle and Bombardier CL-600 airplane models to require maintenance personnel to inform flight crews when engine fan cowls have been opened before flight. (A-08-80) Require all operators of Airbus single-aisle and Bombardier CL-600 airplane models to provide guidance to maintenance personnel and flight crews on how to inspect engine fan cowls to verify that they are latched properly. (A-08-81) Determine the extent of the problem of engine fan cowl separations on all airplanes and, should a widespread problem exist for any airplanes, require operators of those airplanes to include a dual inspection signoff in their maintenance procedures to confirm that engine fan cowls are latched after completing any engine maintenance that involves the opening of an engine fan cowl. (A-08-82) (NTSB)
NTSB Safety Recommendations A-08-79 through -82
14 OCT 2008 CAA UK publishes State Safety Programme for the United Kingdom [to table of contents] The U.K. CAA published the State Safety Programme for the United Kingdom (SSP). The SSP is an ICAO requirement in order to achieve an Acceptable Level of Safety (ALoS). The SSP highlights the structure of aviation regulation in the UK, which consists of multiple authorities (DfT, CAA, European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA)) working together to achieve aviation safety. The SSP also highlights that the UK has differing relationships with its Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. The UK’s partnership with EASA and the European Commission (EC) through the Single European Sky (SES) initiative continues to develop. (CAA)
14 OCT 2008 U.S. FAA confirms Category 1 safety rating for South Africa [to table of contents] The South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) announced that South Africa’s Category 1 status has been reconfirmed by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). This follows the visit by the FAA on July 30, 2008, to review the work accomplished by the SACAA since the re-audit conducted on the Authority in December 2007. A Category 1 rating means the country’s civil aviation authority complies with ICAO standards. (SACAA)
press release
15 OCT 2008 Indonesia suspends AOC of four airlines and reinstates AOC of four others [to table of contents] Indonesia has suspended the Air Operator Certificates (AOCs) of four airlines after a safety audit found that they failed to meet minimum standards in several safety categories. The airlines involved are Pura Wisata Baruna, Sampoerna Air Nusantara, Dabi Air Nusantara and Atlas Deltasatya. They have three months to comply with regulations. Four out of five airlines that had their AOCs suspended in July 2008 have now been allowed to operate again since they now meet safety standards. These four airlines are: SMAC, Asco Nusa Air, Tri-MG Intra Asia Airlines and Dirgantara Air Service. The fifth airline, Helizona, had its AOC revoked. (Channel News Asia) 16 OCT 2008 FAA expands runway status lights nationwide [to table of contents]
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) awarded a contract to Sensis Corp. of Syracuse, N.Y. to install runway status lights at 22 major U.S. airports. Runway status lights are designed to improve runway safety at busy airports by warning pilots when it is unsafe to cross or enter a runway. The initial award is a three-year contract valued at $131 million to install the lights. There are two one-year options to install the lights at additional airports, for a total contract value of $215 million. Sensis Corp. is responsible for developing the software, testing and installing the lights. When runway status light prototypes at Dallas-Fort Worth and San Diego International airports proved effective in helping avoid potential runway conflicts, the FAA decided to install the lights at the same airports where the Airport Surface Detection Equipment Model X (ASDE-X) systems are being installed. The runway status lights will use the ASDE-X surveillance data to operate. As part of the initial contract, runway status lights will be deployed at Atlanta; Baltimore Washington International; Boston; Charlotte, NC; Chicago O’Hare; Dallas-Fort Worth; Denver; Detroit; Washington Dulles; Fort Lauderdale; Houston Intercontinental; New York John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia; Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; Newark, N.J.; Orlando, Fla.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; San Diego; and Seattle airports. (FAA) 17 OCT 2008 NTSB issues urgent recommendation regarding PW2037 engines inspections [to table of contents]
As a result of its ongoing investigation of an incident involving a Pratt & Whitney PW2037 engine experiencing an uncontained failure, the U.S. NTSB issued an urgent recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration to require all Pratt & Whitney PW2037 engines be removed from service for inspection of the second stage turbine hubs when they have accumulated significantly fewer hours (10,880) and/or cycles (4,392) than the incident engine. On August 6, 2008, Delta Air Lines flight 624, a Boeing 757-232 equipped with PW2037 engines, experienced an uncontained failure of the right engine’s high pressure turbine second stage hub at McCarran International Airport, Las Vegas, Nevada. According to the pilots, at the start of the takeoff roll they heard a loud bang and observed that the right engine had lost power. The pilots rejected the takeoff and the airplane returned to the gate. All 166 passengers and the crew of four deplaned. There was no fire or injuries. Examination of the incident airplane’s right engine revealed a hole in the bottom of the core cowl that was in line with a hole through the engine’s high pressure turbine. The inspection also revealed missing lugs and cracks in the turbine hub. Additionally, the Safety Board learned that at least four other PW2037 second stage turbine hubs have had cracks in the blade retaining lugs. And, NTSB has also learned that, during a routine overhaul, an American Airlines PW2037 second stage turbine hub with cracks in two adjacent blade retaining lugs was reported. The Safety Board has requested information on all of these hubs. (NTSB)
Safety Recommendation A-08-85 Urgent and -86
21 OCT 2008 NTSB reverses FAA Revocation Order issued against Air Trek [to table of contents] A U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Administrative Law Judge issued an oral initial decision on October 17, 2008, reversing an Emergency Order issued by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) on June 10, 2008, which revoked the Air Carrier Certificate held by Air Trek, Inc., an air ambulance operator based in Punta Gorda, FL. By the fourth day of the hearing, the FAA had withdrawn 6 of the 10 Counts in the revocation order and dismissed 9 of the 14 regulatory violations. At the termination of the hearing, the remaining two findings of violation by the law judge related only to flight operations that occurred at Air Trek's Winchester, Virginia (OKV) base of operations, which had been closed since January 2007 (more than 1 1/2 years prior to issuance of the revocation order). (Aviation Today) 22 OCT 2008 Mokulele Airlines grounded for three hours after FAA inspection [to table of contents]
Mokulele Airlines, a Hawaiian carrier, grounded its fleet for three hours while the flight crew underwent training. Eight round-trip flights were cancelled during the grounding. The grounding was a result of an FAA inspection. The FAA determined that cabin crews were not given training on the use of fire extinguishers and life preservers, as required under the airline's FAA operating regulations. The FAA asked the airline to cease operation until training was completed. (KGMB9)
