AeroSafety World April 2011

It was too much to ask of the Hawker 800A. In a hurried approach to Owatonna, Minnesota, U.S., the flight crew had not completed the “Descent” and “Approach” checklists, conducted a thorough approach briefing or noted that the wind had shifted to a tailwind.

Trouble began on the landing rollout when the captain, the pilot flying, mistakenly failed to engage the airplane’s lift-dump system. A go-around was begun 17 seconds after touchdown. It was too late, with insufficient runway and the flaps fully retracted. The flight ended in a fatal overrun.

Contributing factors, the NTSB found, were “the pilots’ poor crew coordination and lack of cockpit discipline; fatigue, which likely impaired both pilots’ performance; and the failure of the FAA to require CRM training and SOPs for Part 135 operators.”
68 pages. [PDF 4.9M]

Feature articles and departments are now available in text only format as well as Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) format.

Maintenance Matters

Bad Parts (Text only)

Incidents of counterfeit parts in the electronics industry more than doubled between 2005 and 2008, according to the Aerospace Industries Association, which is urging action to reduce the associated risks in the aviation industry. The decreasing numbers of component manufacturers and issues involving shortages of materials also play a role in the production of counterfeit parts, the report said.
[Download PDF 3 pages. 217K]

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Cover Story

Too Late to Go (Text only)

Establishing “committed-to-stop” points on landing for turbine airplanes and allowing pilots to use prescription sleep medications to counter insomnia were among the recommendations generated by the investigation of a Hawker 800A accident in Owatonna, Minnesota, U.S., that killed all eight people aboard and destroyed the airplane on July 31, 2008. [Download PDF 5 pages. 282K]

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Cabin Safety

Collective Wisdom (Text only)

The NTSB’s long interest in eliminating the lap-child exception has been reflected in 14 related safety recommendations, Chairman Deborah Hersman said. As of 2011, NTSB policy makers have yet to be convinced that voluntary CRS use by passengers is sufficient.
[Download PDF 3 pages. 183K]

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Flight Ops

Why Good Forecasts Go Bad (Text only)

Accurate weather forecasts are crucial to the aviation industry. The greatest concern is, of course, the safety of flight crews, passengers and the aircraft they are in. The economic implications are also enormous. Knowing weather conditions at the departure and arrival locations and along the flight route is critical to an industry in which, literally, time is money.
[Download PDF 5 pages. 384K]

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Threat analysis

LightSquared on Track (Text only)

GPS specialists race the clock to resolve concerns about harmful interference from a new U.S. wireless broadband network. The unresolved question is whether the wireless broadband network now being built by LightSquared Subsidiary — the first of its kind to blend satellite-based mobile communication with terrestrial base stations sharing satellite frequencies — will cause any harmful interference to GPS receivers.
[Download PDF 5 pages. 412K]

LightSquared on Track (Expanded version of original article) Text Only

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Infrastructure

Shutting Down (Text only)

About 800 instrument approach procedures (IAPs) to U.S. airports are underutilized or redundant and could be shut down, according to a Flight Safety Foundation report prepared at the request of the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration.The number is growing because of the ongoing transition from a ground-based navigation system to a satellite-based system — part of the FAA’s air traffic control modernization effort known as the Next Generation Air Transportation System.
[Download PDF 5 pages. 314K]

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Business Ops

Checklist Confusion (Text only)

Corporate aviation department managers and chief pilots do not have the regulatory direction or clear guidance afforded their air carrier counterparts, and much confusion exists about the acceptability and legality of modifying manufacturers’ checklists.
[Download PDF 3 pages. 169K]

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Seminar EASS

Stop Stalling (Text only)

Aerodynamic stalls lately have had roles in an unusually large number of accidents, helping to boost the “loss of control” accident category to the top of the rankings of killer events in aviation. So it was not surprising that one of the most compelling segments of Flight Safety Foundation’s 23rd annual European Aviation Safety Seminar, in Istanbul, Turkey, concerned how to deal with the onset of stalls and how to train for stall recovery.
[Download PDF 4 pages. 402K]

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Executive’s Message

Changing the Conversation (Text only)

Aviation safety experts, for the most part, understand that punishing someone for falling asleep and staffing a second body in a tower that sees hardly any traffic overnight isn’t the solution. The solution must be to determine the cause of the problem, figure out how to stop the problem, and in a worst case, determine how to safely mitigate it when it occurs. [Download PDF 1 page. 81K]

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Editorial Page

Slipping Away (Text only)

One of the toughest jobs connected with aviation safety is trying to convince operators that being safe today has little bearing on being safe tomorrow if continuous attention is not paid. This task gets even more difficult during periods of economic hardship. [Download PDF 1 page. 74K]

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Safety Calendar

Industry Events (Text only)

A listing of current aviation safety-related conferences, seminars and meetings. [Download PDF 1 page. 78K]

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Air Mail

Letters From Our Readers (Text only)

I am grateful that you found the crash of a Polish [Tupolev] Tu-154 worth an article (ASW, 2/11, p. 20). It is vital in light of demands expressed by some local politicians for a new investigation. [Download PDF 1 page. 148K]

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In Brief

Safety News (Text only)

Air traffic controllers should not be permitted to work as supervisors at the same time they are performing operational air traffic control duties, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says. [Download PDF 3 pages. 145K]

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In Sight

Safety Chill (Text only)

Though under-reported by journalists, there is another “chill” that is every bit as dangerous to the public interest. I'm referring to “safety chill,” the fear of legal liability, which is threatening to choke off the free flow of information through the aviation safety system that protects the traveling public. [Download PDF 2 pages. 261K]

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Foundation Focus

BARS Training Advances (Text only)

Flight Safety Foundation, in conjunction with a number of major resource companies, last year developed the Basic Aviation Risk Standard (BARS) with the goal of uniting all resource industry aviation service providers under a single comprehensive risk standard through which a single audit will certify an operator for all BARS member organizations. [Download PDF 1 page. 69K]

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Data Link

Side Trips (Text only)

Flight crew actions or failures to act were the most significant factors in fatal runway excursions, according to data analyzed by a U.K. Civil Aviation Authority task force. [Download PDF 3 pages. 341K]

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Info Scan

The View From the Sharp End (Text only)

It might be possible for medical researchers to define a disease they want to cure, although that is not always the case. But human error belongs to a different class of phenomena, involving fantastically complex interactions of causal factors.
[Download PDF 4 pages. 213K]

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On Record

Brake Anomaly Causes Overrun (Text only)

The following information provides an awareness of problems in the hope that they can be avoided in the future. The information is based on final reports by official investigative authorities on aircraft accidents and incidents. [Download PDF 8 pages. 262K]

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