Business Aviation - Sundt Air får positiv presse - AIN

Norwegian Bizav Company Ups Its Carbon Neutralization

Norwegian aviation services provider Sundt Air has, for the past several years, operated as a carbon neutral company, due to its participation in a mangrove forest restoration program in the Thor Heyerdahl Climate Park in Myanmar. This year, its charter division will make flights even more sustainable for its passengers by pledging to double the contribution required to cancel the carbon emissions generated.

Along with providing coastal protection against tsunamis and other forms of extreme weather, shelter for juvenile marine creatures, and cleaning polluted waterways, Mangroves swamps are important as each tree mitigates five times more CO2 as their terrestrial equivalent, and produces enough oxygen for four people. The Myanmar Mangrove project, implemented by Worldview International Foundation in cooperation with Pathein University, was the first such project in Asia to achieve verified carbon standard validation. It has achieved a 93 percent survival rate of trees planted and will mitigate 3.5 million tons of CO2 over the next two decades.

In addition to being Norway’s largest private jet operator, Sundt Air operates a Part 145 repair station, has FBOs in Oslo and Stavanger, and offers aircraft brokerage services.

GPS jamming i nord - ABC Nyheter

Russland vil kategorisk avvise at det var dem. De vil hevde at det var NATO som jammet for å trene egne styrker. (Red.)

Norske myndigheter har gitt Russland GPS-bevis

NTB

29. mars 2019 20:43 – Oppdatert 29. mars 2019 20:43

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Norske myndigheter har gitt Russland tekniske data som de mener beviser russisk jamming av flytrafikk i Nord-Norge. De første tegnene kom under øvelsen Trident Juncture i november i fjor.

Norske myndigheter har gitt Russland tekniske data som de mener beviser russisk jamming av flytrafikk i Nord-Norge. Det bekrefter Utenriksdepartementet til VG.

Det er Avinor og Luftfartstilsynet som har gått med på å overlate dataene til russiske myndigheter som hele tiden har avvist at det har vært tilfelle.

«Utenriksdepartementet har delt teknisk informasjon fra norske luftfartsmyndigheter med russisk side», skriver pressetalskvinne Ingrid Ekker i UD i en epost til VG.

Bakgrunnen for konflikten er at GPS-signalene til flytrafikken i Finnmark forsvant samtidig som NATO-øvelsen «Trident Juncture» foregikk i Sør-Norge i fjor høst. Norske myndigheter mener dette skyldtes jamming fra Russland, noe russerne kategorisk har avvist.

Også i månedsskiftet februar-mars varslet flere flybesetninger om støysignaler nord for Bodø og over Tromsø.

Norske myndigheter avventer nå svar fra Russland.

Forurenset luft i kabinen - Fagforening leia av alle tilfellene - Curt Lewis

Airlines face lawsuits over 'toxic' cabin air


Five of the UK's largest airlines are facing legal action which claims pilots and cabin crew are regularly exposed to toxic fumes during flights.

The Unite union said legal notice has been served in 51 cases, the majority of which are against British Airways.

EasyJet, Thomas Cook, Jet2 and Virgin Atlantic are also subject to the legal action over "aerotoxic syndrome".

The airlines said that previous studies found no proof of long-term ill-health arising from cabin air quality.

The Unite union, which represents airline staff, claims pilots and crew are exposed to frequent "fume events" when air drawn into the aircraft becomes contaminated by toxic compounds.

The union says the fumes, which originate from the oil used to lubricate the jet engines, contain organophosphates and TCP, and that long-term exposure can lead to chronic ill-health and life-threatening conditions.

"Independent expert evidence concludes that air on board jet planes can contain a toxic mix of chemicals and compounds that potentially damage the nervous system and may lead to chronic irreversible health problems in susceptible individuals," said Unite's assistant general secretary for legal services, Howard Beckett.

"The airline industry cannot continue to hide from the issue of toxic cabin air whilst placing the health and safety of aircrew at risk."

'No safety risk'
British Airways responded that "none of the substantial research conducted over many years" had shown a link between cabin air quality and ill-health.

"We would never operate an aircraft if we believed it posed a health or safety risk to our customers or crew," British Airways said.

It also pointed to research by the regulator, the European Aviation Safety Agency, which concluded that the aircraft air quality was "similar or better than that observed in normal indoor environments".

Unite said that it has independent expert evidence that it will produce in court to back its claim that the air "in most commercial airline cabins can cause irreversible neurological damage and chronic illness among susceptible individuals".

Inquiry
As well as backing the legal action, the union is calling for an inquiry into the safety of cabin air. It suggests different oils could be used to lubricate engines that are less likely to leak toxic fumes.

It is calling for better monitoring of cabin air and the installation of air filters.

EasyJet said its aircraft were "fully compliant with the latest standards in terms of air quality and air-conditioning".

It added: "EasyJet takes any health concerns raised by its crew seriously. However, aviation regulators and manufacturers around the world have looked at this issue and found no proof that long-term health issues arise from cabin air quality."

The budget airline acknowledged that while "fume events" did occur, research suggested they could cause "some minor acute symptoms" but found no link with long-term health effects.

Of the cases being brought, four are by pilots, while the remaining 47 are from cabin crew.

The majority, 41 of the cases, relate to British Airways. Unite, which has campaigned on the issue for several years, said it could take up to a year for the cases to come to court.

Unite also said that because air was not drawn in via the engine on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, the problem of aerotoxicity did not apply to that aircraft.

B737 MAX - FAA og Boeing - Skummelt sammenkok av ansvar - Curt Lewis

Automatic anti-stall system activated before Ethiopian Airlines crash: report


(CNN)Preliminary findings from officials investigating the Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 8 crash suggest that a flight-control feature automatically activated before the plane nose-dived into the ground, according to reporting from the Wall Street Journal.

Citing multiple unnamed sources, the WSJ reported that the findings are the first to come to light based on data retrieved from Flight 302's black boxes.

Earlier this month, the Federal Aviation Administration agency grounded all Boeing 737 Max planes, saying it had identified similarities between the Ethiopian Airlines crash and the Lion Air crash in Indonesia six months earlier.

Ethiopian Minister of Transport later reiterated that point, saying preliminary data recovered from the black boxes of the crash in Ethiopia showed similarities to the Lion Air crash.

Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed the morning of March 10 after taking off from Addis Ababa on its way to Nairobi, Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.

Lion Air Flight 610 crashed into the Java Sea in Indonesia on October 29 after taking off from Jakarta. All 189 people on board died.

The reported findings come from a preliminary report that's required by the investigating authority to be produced within 30 days of an incident. The findings are not final and subject to change as the investigation continues.

If confirmed, the preliminary findings cited in the Wall Street Journal would suggest that the automated flight software called the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), which was installed in both planes could be to blame in the two incidents.

The MCAS is a system that automatically lowers the nose of the plane when it receives information from its external angle of attack (AOA) sensors that the aircraft is flying too slowly or steeply, and at risk of stalling.

In the Lion Air crash, the MCAS forced the plane's nose down more than 24 times before it finally hit water, according to a preliminary investigation by Indonesia's National Transportation Safety Committee, which also found the system was responding to a faulty sensor.

Investigators have also pointed to whether pilots had sufficient training with the system.

According to Ethiopian Airlines CEO Tewolde GebreMariam, pilots transitioning to the Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft from older 737 models were required only to undertake a short computer-based training program prescribed by Boeing and approved by the FAA.
GebreMariam also said the flight simulator that pilots trained on to learn how to fly the Boeing 737 Max 8 plane did not replicate the MCAS automated feature that crash investigators are scrutinizing.

Pilots' union spokesmen for Southwest and American said the self-administered course -- which one pilot told CNN he took on his iPad -- highlighted the differences between the Max 8 and older 737s, but did not explain the MCAS feature.

On Wednesday, Boeing unveiled an overhaul to the software system and the pilot training of its 737 MAX plane.

At Senate hearings in Washington on Wednesday, Trump administration officials were grilled about the decision to defer large parts of the 737's safety certification to Boeing.
Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said that she found it "very questionable" that safety systems were not part of the standard package offered by Boeing on its 737 Max jets.

A Boeing official said Wednesday that the company had conducted a number of its own "thorough audits" since the Lion Air crash and found "nothing that concerns us."

"If you look at the performance of the system, it would indicate that we are continuing to learn and continuing to get better and better over time. And so right now, I would be very careful about indicting any part of that process until we know more from the specifics of these accidents," the official told CNN.

Grounded Boeing 737 Max also grounds FAA reputation

Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air crashes only the latest tragedies from Federal Aviation Administration's coziness with airline industry: Our view

Consider this worst-case scenario: A Congress bent on streamlining government orders the Federal Aviation Administration to turn over more and more safety oversight to aircraft makers. Factors such as production, profits and U.S. jobs seep into federal safety certification so that Boeing, eager to outsell rival Airbus, wins reduced scrutiny for its new 737 Max series. The new fleet turns out to have a hidden flaw - an automated anti-stall feature that can be violently activated by an errant sensor, wrestling control of the aircraft from undertrained pilots and plunging it into the ground. This flaw contributes to two air disasters within five months, one in the seas off Indonesia on Oct. 29 and a second in Ethiopia on March 10, that leave 346 people dead.

It all seems unthinkable - if only so much of it wasn't already known to be true and the rest the focus of investigation. "Clearly," Transportation Department Inspector General Calvin Scovel told a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday, "confidence in the FAA as the gold standard for aviation safety has been shaken."

Actually, this wouldn't be the first time that excessive FAA coziness with airlines and manufacturers has contributed to tragedy. Lax FAA oversight was a factor in the 1996 crash of a ValuJet flight into the Florida Everglades, killing 110, and an Alaska Airlines crash in 2000 that left 88 dead.


A Boeing 737 MAX 9 test plane on March 22, 2019, in Seattle.

FAA: We don't allow companies to police themselves

Over the past decade, U.S. commercial airlines have had an extraordinary safety record. But there's the risk that success bred complacency on safety certification, particularly as avionics and software grew increasingly complex.

Congress and successive administrations pushed the FAA to cut costs by delegating more regulatory work to manufacturers - a practice not unlike allowing authors to review their own books. Insiders have warned for years that FAA was delegating away its world-class reputation on safety:

►In 2004, an FAA union called it a "reckless" practice that "would actually compromise public air safety" and was establishing a "fox guarding the henhouse mentality."

►Agency workers complained in 2012 that FAA management and Boeing - between which there was virtually a revolving door of employees - were growing too familiar.

►A 2015 internal audit raised concerns that oversight of the delegation program was focusing more on "paperwork - not on safety-critical items."

That same year, as reported in The Seattle Times last week, the FAA delegated to Boeing a review of the automated anti-stall feature now at the center of the 737 Max crash investigations, and the safety analysis that came back was deeply flawed.

In the wake of the two jetliners falling from the sky shortly after takeoff, multiple investigations are underway to get to the bottom of what went wrong. President Donald Trump has finally nominated a permanent administrator for the FAA and its 44,000 workers. Boeing this week announced software fixes to the anti-stall feature of the 737 Max series.

Those jetliners remain grounded worldwide, as well they should, until the fixes are fully tested and pilots are fully trained. In the meantime, the FAA, once at the global forefront of air safety issues, finds itself leading from behind.

UAM - Er dette den første av slike tjenester? AIN

Blade Launches Continuous Helicopter Shuttle at JFK

Passenger helicopter flight provider Blade has launched what it describes as “the largest urban air mobility initiative (UAM)” in the U.S., with the announcement that it will offer continuous daytime shuttle flights in New York, between midtown Manhattan and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK). The per-seat service, which will run on weekdays between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. using a Bell 206L-4 operated by Zip Aviation, will fly between Blade’s lounge at the West 30th Street Heliport and the JFK helipad, with ground transportation then linking to the airline terminals, for $195 per passenger.

According to Blade, that cost is comparable to that for car service on the same route during rush hour but at a fraction of the time. At JFK, Blade will soon open a counter in the lobby of the TWA Hotel.

“The heavy traffic between urban centers and area airports is a key point of friction in city life,” said Blade CEO Rob Wiesenthal. “Our UAM service begins to remedy this issue at a reasonable price today, while paving the way for even more affordable solutions tomorrow driven by our partners’ next-generation electric aircraft.”

Earlier this year, Blade announced an agreement with American Airlines, whose Five Star Service passengers at JFK can book an airplane to helicopter transfer option at the time of their ticket purchase.

Business Jet - Bombardier med skikkelig kvikkas - AIN

March 28, 2019 View in browser   •   Email Editor

Technical difficulties with our email service delayed release of today's AINalerts. We apologize for the delay.   Global 7500 Takes LA to New York City Speed Crown A production Bombardier Global 7500 that serves as a demonstrator aircraft set a speed record from Los Angeles to New York City over the weekend, besting the previous record set on this route by a Gulfstream G650 operated by a German pilot on Nov. 29, 2014. The Global 7500—registered as C-FXAI and piloted by Bombardier pilots Kerry Swanson and Andrew Sibenaler—left Van Nuys Airport on Sunday at 7:01 a.m. local time and landed at Teterboro Airport at 1:55 p.m. local time, completing the coast-to-coast mission in 3 hours and 54 minutes. During the flight, the aircraft reached a top speed of Mach 0.925—the 7500’s Mmo—and sustained that for more than two hours in level flight, “demonstrating exceptional speed capabilities,” according to Bombardier Business Aircraft president David Coleal. “This latest speed record demonstrates once again that the Global 7500 jet is the undisputed leader in business aviation.” The record, which is pending certification by the National Aeronautic Association, comes on the heels of a speed and distance record set earlier this month by a Global 7500. The aircraft logged 8,152 nm after taking off from Singapore at 7:12 a.m. local time on March 4 and landing in Tucson, Arizona, at 8:19 a.m. The aircraft landed with 4,300 pounds of fuel, falling well within NBAA requirements with nearly 90 additional minutes of flight time possible.

B737 markedet endrer seg - MRO Network

Virkelige classics på Buenos Aires Ezeiza den 24.3.2019 - Foto: Per Gram

B737 Demand, Pricing Firming Up

The grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX fleet has led to changes in the market for older variants of the narrowbody, says the CEO of Dubai’s DAE Capital.

James Pozzi | Mar 28, 2019

After the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft fleet was grounded by regulators across the world earlier this month, some noticeable trends are occurring in the market concerning Boeing 737 classic and NG aircraft, according to Firoz Tarapore, CEO of Dubai-based lessor DAE Capital.

“Both demand and pricing are firming up,” Tarapore told Aviation Week. However, with changes due, including a new software fix and an overhaul of pilot training put forward by Boeing earlier this week, he doesn’t see this being the new norm. “This phenomenon is likely to abate after a permanent and satisfactory fix has been put in place for the MAX,” Tarapore says.

DAE Capital currently has 103 737s in total under ownership, in its portfolio of 110 clients in 60 countries worth around $14 billion. It took delivery of its first 737 MAX in July of last year, on lease to Brazilian carrier Gol Linhas Aéreas. However, despite the documented issues of the 737 MAX, Tarapore doesn’t see the lessor changing its investment strategy for  the aircraft long-term.

The business is also building its fleet of managed assets. In January 2019, DAE Capital announced that its managed portfolio of aircraft grew to 54. Following this, Tarapore says it has a target of $5 billion for the portfolio’s value over the next few years. However, he doesn’t see DAE Capital expanding its leasing reach beyond aircraft to engines.

Taking a wider industry view, he believes Dubai has the attributes to become a major player in the aircraft leasing market. He credits this to the area’s connectivity, geographical location, strong talent pool and an attractive tax and regulatory environment.“With over half the projected 42,000 new aircraft to be delivered over the next 20 years coming to Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific, the center of gravity is unmistakably moving eastward,” he says. “The center of gravity will also be moving eastward and Dubai is likely to further establish itself its unique position as a growing hub in the industry.”

Babcock bøtelegges for prisjuksing i Italia - ATW

Dette er selskapet som skal overta luftambulansetjenesten i Norge . (Red.)

Italy Fines Eight Helo Companies For Price Fixing

Mar 26, 2019Tony Osborne | The Weekly Of Business Aviation

LONDON—UK-based helicopter operator Babcock Mission Critical Services (BMCS) has expressed surprise at the Italian Competition Authority’s (ACGM) decision to fine the company €50 million ($56.5 million) for anticompetitive activities.

Over og ut for islandske WOW Air - Check-In

Skúli Mogensen, grundlægger af og administrerende direktør i WOW air (Foto: WOW air)

WOW air er konkurs

Af: Ole Kirchert Christensen i Økonomi 28. marts 2019 Senest opdateret: 28. marts 2019 kl. 11:04  Print

Det lykkedes ikke at redde det islandske lavprisflyselskab, WOW air, der nu er gået konkurs efter en langvarig dødskamp.

Torsdag morgen måtte WOW air aflyse samtlige flyvninger med begrundelse om, at en kapitalforhøjelse var nært forestående, og at dokumenterne først skulle underskrives.

Men i stedet er det hele – som ventet – endt i en konkurs, da manøvren tilsyneladende ikke lykkedes.

WOW air oplyser på sin hjemmeside, at alle flyvninger er aflyst, og at selskabet indstiller driften.

“Jeg vil aldrig kunne til­gi­ve mig selv for ikke at handle tidlig­ere, da det er ind­lysende, at WOW var et utroligt flys­elskab, og vi var på rette vej for at komme godt tilbage,” skriver selskabets administrerende direktør og stifter Skuli Mogensen, ifølge islandske MBL.is, i et brev til medarbejderne.

Samtlige syv tilbageværende fly er sat på jorden og befinder sig i amerikanske og canadiske lufthavne, hvorfra de ikke er returneret efter gårsdagens flyvninger.

Lang dødskamp
Igennem de seneste fire måneder har WOW air været igennem en længere dødskamp og har forgæves forsøgt at finde nye investorer. Forhandlinger med Icelandair og den amerikanske kapitalfond, Indigo Partners, er faldet til jorden, og senest har selskabet meddelt, at man er blevet enige med obligationsindehavere om at konvertere gæld til aktiekapital.

Det var ifølge islandske medier flyleasingselskaberne, der trak stikket, da de valgte at tilbageholde selskabets fly i de nordamerikanske lufthavne. Det skyldes angiveligt manglende overholdelse af leasingaftalerne.

WOW air blev grundlagt i november 2011 og gennemførte den første kommercielle flyvning fra Reykjavik til Paris den 31. maj 2012. I oktober samme år overtog WOW air resterne af det krakkede Iceland Express.

Da WOW air var på sit højeste beskæftigede selskabet 20 fly og fløj til flere end 40 destinationer i USA, Canada, Indien og Europa.

Icelandair vil hjælpe
Hos Icelandair vejrer man morgenluft, efter den finansielle nødlanding hos lavpriskonkurrenten. Allerede fra morgenstunden steg Icelandair-aktien med mere end 22 procent.

“Icelandair er bekendt med situationen i kølvandet på konkursen i WOW air. Vi arbejder i øjeblikket på en plan for at hjælpe strandede passagerer med at kunne komme hjem. Planen ventes at være klar i løbet af få timer,” hedder det i en meddelelse fra Icelandair.

Boeings B737 MAX MCAS fix - Grovt fortalt - TW

Boeing outlines MAX changes to add redundancy, pilot control

Guy Norris

Premium Content

Key changes to the Boeing 737 MAX’s maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) will incorporate more redundancy into the aircraft’s much-scrutinized flight-control law and give pilots ultimate elevator authority by limiting the degree of nose-down stabilizer command the automated system can trigger.

FAA forsvarer sertifiseringsprosedyren for B787 MAX - ATW

Skulle gjerne hørt fra Boeing flygerne hva de mener om dette. Send meg en melding og du forblir anonym. (Red.)

Elwell: Boeing 737 MAX certification process was ‘detailed & thorough’

Sean Broderick

Premium Content

Identification of in-service issues with the Boeing 737 MAX maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS) flight control law follows a common pattern for newly certified products, and does not signal errors made during the system’s design and risk analysis, FAA Acting Administrator Dan Elwell told a Senate panel March 27.

Helikopterulykken ved Kragerø - Måten helikopteret menøvreres på synes å være en utfordring - ABC Nyheter

Vel, mister du rotor RPM, noe som signaleres voldsomt visuelt og på audio, er det ikke mange muligheter dersom du er lavt; collective ned for å holde turtallet og autorotere. Er du høyt gjelder samme prosedyre, maintain RPM og analyser situasjonen, send Mayday dersom mulig, forsøk restart ved motorbortfall,  og kikk etter nødlandingsplass. (Red.)

Helge overlevde dramatisk helikopterstyrt: – Rotoren gikk saktere og saktere

Da Helge Andersen skjønte at han ville miste kontrollen over helikopteret, måtte han ta sitt livs avgjørelse. Ville han styrte i vannet eller på land?

Kari Løberg SkårJournalist

Christopher Isachsen SandøyJournalist

Publisert i går kl. 19:01 Oppdatert i går kl. 2112

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– Det er som å kjøre en bil i 80 kilometer i timen og plutselig få vite at om noen sekunder vil rattet bli fjernet, sier Helge Andersen fra Arendal.

Han snakker om hendelsen sist lørdag, da helikopteret han var pilot i, styrtet i Kragerø i Telemark.

Mens han og en kamerat satt i helikopteret av typen Robinson R44 flere hundre meter over Fossingfjorden, ble det dramatisk.

– Rotoren gikk saktere og saktere. Det var som om både den og motoren holdt på å dø ut.

Forsyningsskipet "Maud" ankommer omsider Norge - Pressekonferanse

Presseinvitasjon: Forsvarets nye logistikkfartøy KNM Maud kommer hjem

Pressemelding | 26.03.2019

Sjøforsvaret inviterer media til Haakonsvern fredag 29. mars for å overvære at Forsvarets nye logistikkfartøy, KNM Maud, ankommer Norge. Statsminister Erna Solberg og forsvarsminister Frank Bakke-Jensen vil være til stede ved mottakelsen av «Maud» og besetningen på Haakonsvern i Bergen.

Nyhetsvarsel om: Forsvar

Elektriske sjøfly - Harbour Air i Vancouver mener det er veien fremover - Curt Lewis

Harbour Air to switch to battery-powered aircraft


Harbour Air Seaplanes has announced plans to transform into the world's first all-electric airline.

The B.C.-based company announced a partnership with magniX that will make it the first seaplane airline to start making the conversion to all-electric planes.

Dubbed the Harbour Air ePlane, a DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver will be the first to be converted. The aircraft will be powered by the magni500, a 750-horsepower all-electric motor. This engine would make the ePlane more powerful than the gas-powered de Havilland Beaver by 70 horsepower.

The planes would be virtually silent except for propeller noise.

"The reality is transportation is going electric, just because its practical. And it's becoming more practical all the time just based on the advancement of battery technology," Harbour Air CEO Greg McDougall said.

"Short stage lengths and single-engine aircraft, which don't require as much energy to fly, so that puts us in a unique position that we can actually take advantage of the technology."

The announcement is just the start of the process to converting the fleet.

"Step one is to have a prototype flying, which will prove the technology and then go through the regulatory process of proving of the safety standard" McDougall said.

Aerospace analyst Richard Aboulafia of the U.S.-based Teal Group has doubts about the feasibility of completely battery-powered aircraft.

"It's an aggressive timeframe, it's starting to be feasible for very small planes. When it comes to electric power sources it's really all about the range and the size of the plane," Aboulafia said.

"Maybe you have a central turbine that charges (batteries) up and also distributes power directly to propellers or fans or whatever else, that is probably in the 2030s or 2040s but absolute battery-powered flight that's really a very long ways off if ever - aside from very small planes of course."

Founded in 1982, Harbour Air began as a service for the forest industry with with two small seaplanes. The airline now has more than 40 aircraft that make up to 300 flights a day to 12 destinations.

Automatisering - Veien mot førerløse fly - Curt Lewis

The future of aviation? Even more automation

Most consumers don't know how much of aviation is already automated. And researchers expect fully autonomous flights to become commonplace in the next few decades.



BY STEPHEN RICE AND SCOTT WINTER

In the wake of the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes of Boeing 737 Max planes, people are thinking about how much of their air travel is handled by software and automated systems-as opposed to the friendly pilots sitting in the cockpit.

Older commercial airliners, such as the Beechcraft 1900, which are still in service mostly as small commuter aircraft, often do not have any autopilot installed. By contrast, modern commercial airliners have automated systems that can augment or even replace pilots' performance, managing engine power, controlling and navigating the aircraft, and in some cases even completing landings.

Investigations are probing the possible role of automated systems in the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash in Indonesia and the Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crash in March 2019. Regardless of those findings, the public may not know how much automation already is part of flying today-nor how much more automated commercial flight will become in the years ahead.

Our research has examined consumers' willingness to interact with automated systems on all types of vehicles, including aircraft. Most recently, we have begun looking into people's interest in what is being called "urban air mobility." This concept involves a system of small two- to four-passenger fully autonomous air taxis that could carry passengers on short trips throughout cities without a human pilot on board.

SIDE EFFECTS OF HIGHLY AUTOMATED SYSTEMS
One problem that arises in planes that have highly automated systems is that the pilots can lose track of what's actually happening. This is presumably what happened in 2009 when Air France Flight 447 crashed in the Atlantic Ocean on its way from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Airspeed sensors failed, causing the autopilot to turn itself off, but the pilots weren't able to figure out what was happening or how to recover.

Some experts also believe that a pilot's lack of awareness was a factor in the 2009 crash of Colgan Air Flight 3407 outside Buffalo, New York. While approaching the landing, pilots may have missed the fact that the plane was slowing down too much, and again didn't realize what was happening until it was too late.

Pilots who spend a lot of time in the cockpits of planes with highly automated systems may also lose some sharpness at flying planes on their own. The average pilot of a Boeing or Airbus commercial plane manually flies the plane for between three and six minutes of the whole flight-mostly around takeoff, the initial climb to about 1,500 feet, and then landing.

INDUSTRY SUPPORTS AUTOMATION
Airlines and manufacturers say they would save money and alleviate the current shortage of qualified pilots if they could reduce-or even eliminate-the number of pilots in the cockpit. Redesigning the front of the aircraft to be more aerodynamic could save even more money, if it didn't need room for pilots, or could move them to another part of the aircraft.

Several companies are developing fully autonomous aircraft, including Amazon and UPS, which want to use them for deliveries. Boeing and Airbus are designing self-flying air taxis, which would be used for flights of about 30 minutes and carry between two and four passengers, and have tested prototypes. A company called Volocopter has been testing autonomous air taxis in Germany since 2016 and plans to conduct test flights in downtown Singapore this year. Ridesharing giant Uber, helicopter maker Bell, and many other companies are also expressing interest in similar vehicles.

CONSUMER WILLINGNESS TO FLY IN AUTONOMOUS AIRCRAFT
No matter how far industry progress goes, the key to autonomous flight will be its customers. We have been among the scholars who have studied how willing people are to fly in self-piloting aircraft.

Most of the results suggest that consumers don't know how much of aviation is already automated. Survey participants tend to think pilots fly manually much more than they actually do.

In a study we conducted in 2014, people were much more willing to fly in planes with a human pilot in the cockpit-and quite unwilling to fly with either a human flying the plane remotely or aboard a fully autonomous plane.

Of course, some consumers are willing to fly in fully autonomous aircraft. In a larger study in 2018, just under 30% of U.S. consumers indicated they would be willing to fly on an autonomous airliner. These are the early adopters, who tend to be people who are familiar with automation and view flying on an autonomous airliner as a fun activity. People who are happy about the prospect of increased automation also tend to be more willing to fly on smaller autonomous air taxis.

However, most people are not ready to take fully autonomous commercial flights. Approximately 60% of passengers in our study said they were unwilling to fly on an autonomous commercial airliner.

We believe that lack of knowledge about automation is one of the critical factors here, and that the public would feel better about automated flying if they knew more about the benefits of automation-such as extremely reliable automated warning systems to prevent mid-air collisions and crashes.

WHAT THE FUTURE ENTAILS
Automation is not going away. In fact, by all accounts, it is becoming more prevalent in the cockpit. We fully expect autonomous flights to become commonplace in the next few decades.

Despite the notable crashes involving autopilots, the industry as a whole appears to believe that the automation of the future will be safe, or at least safer, for the flying public. Human error remains the most common cause of aircraft accidents, and people are prone to make the same mistakes again. They also may have trouble taking over from automation if the computers run into problems. Automated systems, however, can be reprogrammed not to make the same errors a second time.

Large commercial airplanes will likely go pilotless later than smaller private aircraft, because of the amount of time and money required to produce them. But smaller air taxis simply are not economically viable if they require a human pilot on board. As aviation automation engineering and technology continues to advance toward full automation, companies and customers alike will need to evaluate the risks and benefits, financially, in terms of safety-and emotionally.

Stephen Rice is associate professor of human factors at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and Scott Winter is assistant professor of graduate studies at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 

Flyging blir mer og mer kompleks, noe du kan lese om under - Curt Lewis

ATSB issues report on in-flight upset involving Boeing 747-400

27 March 2019

Following an ATSB investigation into an in-flight upset involving a Boeing 747-438 near Hong Kong in 2017, Qantas has incorporated more complex stall warning recovery events in recurrent lesson plans for its Boeing 747 flight crews.

The incident occurred in April 2017. While descending toward Hong Kong, air traffic control instructed the flight crew to hold at a waypoint. When entering the holding pattern, the aircraft's aerodynamic stall warning stick shaker activated a number of times and the aircraft experienced multiple oscillations of pitch angle and vertical acceleration. During the upset, some passengers and cabin crewmembers struck the cabin ceiling and furnishings, sustaining minor injuries.

The ATSB found that while planning for the descent, the flight crew overwrote the flight management computer-provided hold speed. After receiving a higher than expected hold level, the flight crew did not identify the need to re-evaluate the hold speed. This was likely because they were not aware of a need to do so, nor were they aware that there was a higher hold speed requirement above flight level 200.

Prior to entering the hold, the speed reduced below both the selected and minimum manoeuvring speeds. The crew did not identify the low speed as their focus was on other operational matters. The ATSB also found that due to a desire to remain within the holding pattern, and a concern regarding the pitch-up moment of a large engine power increase, the pilot flying attempted to arrest the rate of descent prior to completing the approach to stall actions.

In addition, the pilot monitoring did not identify and call out the incomplete actions. This led to further stall warning stick shaker activations and pilot induced oscillations, which resulted in minor injuries to four cabin crewmembers and two passengers.

The ATSB found the flight crew had limited training and guidance for stall warning recovery techniques at high altitude or with engine power above idle. Inconsistencies were also found in flight crew training of the awareness of the need to re-evaluate holding speed when there are changes in altitude, especially above flight level 200.

Subsequent to the incident, Qantas provided retraining for all Boeing 747 flight crews in stall warning recovery scenarios and amended ground school lesson plans to ensure flight crews were adequately prepared to recover from stall warning activations at high altitudes or with engine power above idle.

Qantas also amended flight crew training manuals relating to hold speed selection and updated ground school lesson plans and information to ensure standardised training and holding pattern training. In addition, Qantas proactively applied these measures across its Boeing 737 and 787 fleets.

B737 MAX - Oppdatering - Curt Lewis

U.S. to overhaul air safety oversight in response to two Boeing 737 MAX crashes An aerial photo shows Boeing 737 MAX airplanes parked on the tarmac at the Boeing Factory in Renton, Washington, U.S. March 21, 2019. REUTERS/Lindsey Wasson WASHINGTON/SEATTLE (Reuters) - The U.S. aviation regulator will significantly change its oversight approach to air safety by July following two fatal Boeing Co MAX 737 passenger plane crashes, according to written congressional testimony seen by Reuters. At a U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) acting head Dan Elwell will say the agency's oversight approach must "evolve" after the deadly crashes, according to the testimony. While specific details on oversight changes were not clear, lawmakers are expected to question Elwell on how the regulator intends to change the process by which a manufacturer such as Boeing can to a large extent certify their own planes and flight software systems. Anti-stall software on the Boeing 737 MAX plane is among the leading areas of focus for investigations into the two crashes. Investigators have pointed to "clear similarities" between the crashes, putting pressure on Boeing and U.S. regulators to come up with an adequate fix. The aviation industry has been thrown into flux by a Lion Air crash in Indonesia last October that killed 189 people and an Ethiopian Airlines disaster on March 10 that killed 157, both involving Boeing's 737 MAX single-aisle plane. A spokesman for Ethiopia's transport ministry, which is leading an investigation in Addis Ababa, said the preliminary crash report would very likely be released this week. Boeing's fastest-selling 737 MAX jet, with orders worth more than $500 billion at list prices, has been grounded globally by the FAA, although airlines are still allowed to fly them without passengers to move planes to other airports. One such passenger-less Southwest Airlines Co Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft landed safely on Tuesday after declaring an emergency over an engine-related problem leaving Orlando, Florida, the FAA said. The issue was not related to a computer system on the 737 MAX, Southwest said. Elwell's testimony discloses that Boeing first submitted a proposed upgrade to its anti-stall software - the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, known as MCAS - to the FAA for certification on Jan. 21. Boeing confirmed that in a statement on Tuesday, saying verification and certification flights took place on Feb. 7 and March 12, which is within the typical testing time period. The documentation to show FAA compliance was expected at the end of the week, Boeing said. PILOTS WELCOME CHANGE The Allied Pilots Association, which represents American Airlines pilots, said it welcomed steps toward increased safety. "We're also very interested in any changes to the FAA's structure and certification process that would ensure that never again would a critical system like MCAS not be transparent to pilots," the association said in a statement, highlighting some pilots' concerns that they had been unaware of the existence of MCAS on MAX aircraft they were flying. Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg visited Boeing's Seattle-area facilities on Tuesday and attended at least one all-hands meeting with engineers, two people familiar with the matter said. Boeing is this week briefing airlines on software and training updates for the MAX, with more than 200 airline pilots, technical experts and regulators from around the world due to come to the Renton, Washington, facility where the 737 is assembled. As well as FAA approval, any MAX software fixes will need a green light from governments around the world, a process that could take months. Boeing's software fix for the 737 MAX will prevent repeated operation of the anti-stall system and deactivate it altogether if two sensors disagree widely, two people familiar with pilot briefings told Reuters on Monday. Upgrading an individual 737 MAX with Boeing's new software only takes about an hour per plane, though the overall process could stretch on far longer as it is rolled out across the global fleet because of stringent testing and documentation requirements by engineers and regulators, according to a senior FAA official with knowledge of the process. Boeing shares closed down slightly on Tuesday. They have lost about 12 percent and $29 billion in market value since the crash in Ethiopia. Representative Peter DeFazio, who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, sent a letter on Tuesday to the FAA, asking it to hold an independent, third-party review of Boeing's proposed changes to the 737 MAX before it is returned to service. The FAA's review "must be thorough, deliberative and cannot be rushed," he and Representative Rick Larsen wrote. The third party should include experts "to objectively advise" on the certification of "new and novel technology." https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/ethiopian-crash-report-likely-released-week-boeing-briefs-081554425--finance.html Back to Top

China Suspends Airworthiness Certificate for Boeing 737 Max Move comes after Asian nation awards Airbus $35 billion order U.S. planemaker has also become 'pawn' in simmering trade war China's aviation regulator has suspended its own airworthiness certificate for the Max. Emma O'Brien reports. China suspended a certificate of airworthiness for Boeing Co.'s 737 Max jet, saying it needs to review a proposed modification before determining whether the plane is safe to fly after two recent crashes. The move raises the possibility of the Max being kept out of China's skies should authorities there deem Boeing's fix for plane-control software linked to the disasters inadequate. Chinese authorities grounded the country's fleet of Max planes on March 11, a day after an Ethiopian Airlines flight plunged to the ground. The latest decision was taken in light of the uncertainty surrounding the model and an anti-stall system that's the focus of a probe into the loss of the Ethiopian Airlines plane, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China. It will be reviewed once Boeing has detailed the changes, the body said. The potential blow to Boeing comes a day after China awarded a $35 billion order to Airbus SE that consisted mostly of A320-series planes, the 737's biggest global rival. The Asian nation was one of the first to ground the American narrow-body after the Ethiopian crash showed parallels to one involving a Lion Air Max in October, while Boeing has also become embroiled in a simmering trade spat. "I suspect this has everything to do with the broader China-U.S. climate," said Richard Aboulafia, an aerospace analyst at Teal Group. "Boeing is on the front line in this confrontation. The Max looks like merely a pawn." Boeing Crash Isolates FAA as China Leads Push Against Max It wasn't immediately clear how long the process will take for the Max to regain its certification, but some suggested it could take a long time. "Recertification means the whole vetting process will begin all over again," said Zhang Qihuai, a partner at Lanpeng Law Firm and a former China Air Force lawyer. "For mature plane types, it will take a few days. But for a new plane type, it will take as long as needed. The 737 Max is a new jet." In addition to China, officials in Canada and the European Union have signaled that they intend to independently review changes to the Boeing planes before restoring flights. Airbus Deal Addressing the decision to buy planes from Airbus, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said China and France have consistently cooperated in the aerospace industry to each other's benefit. "China's market has provided conditions facilitating the growth of the Airbus company," Geng said at a briefing in Beijing on Tuesday. "China will stay in cooperation with relevant parties concerning the aerospace industry." In the U.S., the Transportation Department is creating a commission to review aircraft certification, including an evaluation of how the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration oversees the process. While Boeing is working with airlines and regulators this week to prepare an update for the suspect software, known as the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System, it faces increased scrutiny and possible criminal action as the Justice Department begins a probe.