TURBULENCE INJURES 14 ON LUFTHANSA A321: LUFTHANSA Flight 4544 was on Scheduled International A321 Service from Munich, Germany, to Lisbon, Portugal, when it encountered severe turbulence while enroute, yesterday, May 9. Flight 4544, with 147 passengers and crew onboard, was 45 minutes into its flight when the incident took place. The cabin crew was in the midst of meal service, when, without warning, the A321 encountered the clear air turbulence. Due to reported injuries onboard, the crew declared an emergency, and was diverted to Geneva, Switzerland, where it landed without incident. The aircraft was met by Emergency Services upon landing at Geneva. According to media reports, 12 passengers not seat belted, and 2 cabin crew members, were injured during the turbulence. 5 of the 14 injured were transported to local hospitals, while 9 were treated on the scene and released. The aircraft has been removed from service for a full inspection. Swiss & German aviation officials, along with Lufthansa, will investigate the incident.
TIRE BURSTS ON ALITALIA MD82: ALITALIA Flight 1263 was on Scheduled Domestic MD82 Service from Rome to Naples, Italy, when it had to make an emergency return to Rome, yesterday, May 9. Flight 1263 suffered a burst tire of left main gear upon liftoff from Rome. The crew declared an emergency and returned to Rome, where they landed without incident. The aircraft was removed from service for inspection and repairs.
SAUDI MD90 DAMAGED IN LANDING: SAUDI ARABIAN AIRLINES Flight 1585 was on Scheduled Domestic MD90 Service from Jeddah to Yanbu, Saudi Arabia, when it was damaged upon landing at Yanbu, on Friday, May 8. The MD90 struck one of its wings onto the runway while landing in Yanbu, however the crew were able to bring the aircraft to a safe stop. The aircraft, which suffered damage to its wing tip, was ferried to Jeddah for inspection and repair. In a statement, Saudi said that the Captain of the flight has been suspended pending an investigation. This was the 2nd incident for Saudi, on the same day, both of which involved MD90 aircraft. The other incident, which was reported yesterday, also damaged an MD90 upon landing. Saudi has since said that that aircraft was so heavily damaged that it will be written off.
BIRD STRIKE ON PACIFIC BLUE ERJ: A PACIFIC BLUE ERJ190 was on a Evaluation Flight from Hamilton to Palmerstown North, New Zealand, when it suffered a bird strike on its takeoff roll at Hamilton, on Thursday, May 7. A flock of plovers were ingested into the right hand engine, however the crew was able to bring the aircraft to a safe stop. The Airline reported that 3 fan blades of the right hand engine were damaged in the incident. The aircraft engine has already been repaired and the ERJ has since returned to service.
Just seconds before the February 12, 2009 crash of COLGAN AIR Flight 3407 at Clarence Center, New York, the Pilot exclaimed "Jesus Christ" and moments later his First Officer screamed as the Dash plunged to the ground. Flight 3407 was on Scheduled Domestic Dash 8-400 Service from Newark, New Jersey, to Buffalo, New York, on behalf of CONTINENTAL AIRLINES, when it went down on approach to Buffalo, and crashed into a house. All 44 passengers and 5 crew members onboard the Dash, as well as 1 person in the house, were killed in the crash. The NTSB opened 3 days of hearings into the crash this morning. A cockpit voice recorder transcript released today by the NTSB shows that only minutes before the crash, Captain Marvin Renslow and First Officer Rebecca Shaw chatted about her career and shared their fear of flying in icy weather. Moments later the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier, a twin-engine turboprop, experienced an aerodynamic stall and plunged into the house. As the Dash approached Buffalo on a wintry night, Shaw and Renslow first remarked to each other, less than 7 minutes before the crash, about how much ice had formed on their wings. At the time they were descending from 6000 to 4000 feet. "It's lots of ice," Shaw said. "Oh yeah that's the most I've seen, most ice I've seen on the leading edges in a long time, in a while anyway I should say," Renslow replied. Renslow then remarked that he'd flown about 625 hours in the region before he was hired for this job by Colgan Air. Shaw replied, "I really wouldn't mind going through a a winter in the Northeast before I have to upgrade to Captain. ... I've never seen icing conditions. I've never deiced. I've never seen any. I've never experienced any of that. I don't want to have to experience that and make those kinds of calls. You know I'd have freaked out. I'd have like seen this much ice and thought, 'Oh my gosh, we were going to crash.' ""I would've been fine," Renslow replied. "I would have survived it. There wasn't, we never had to make decisions that I wouldn't have been able to make but ... now I'm more comfortable." The crew then lowers the landing gear and adjusts the flaps, but at 10:16.26pm there's a sound similar to movement of the flap handle and Shaw says, "Uhhh." Less than a second later, there are sounds similar to the stick shaker, a warning transmitted through the control stick that the aircraft is nearing a stall. These last for 6.7 seconds. Less than a second later, a horn sounds signaling the autopilot disconnecting and that horn continues until the end of the recording. 3 seconds later, there's a click followed by the sound of increased engine power. At 10:16.34.8, Renslow says, "Jesus Christ." Shaw says she put the flaps up and asks if she should put the landing gear up. Renslow replies: "Gear up, oh (expletive)." As noise in the cockpit increases, Renslow adds: "We're down." There's a thump. Shaw: "We (sound of scream)." With that entry at 10:16.52, the transcript ends.
The board also released documents showing that safety investigators were told by 1 training instructor that Renslow "was slow learning" the Dash 8 at the start but his abilities "picked up at the end." The training instructor said Renslow struggled to learn the Dash 8's flight management system, a critical computer, and had difficulty learning switch positions which were opposite from the throws he had been used to on another aircraft. This instructor described the Captain's decision-making abilities as very good. A check airman who flew with the Captain in December said he flew very well and had good skills, and while he was still learning the flight management system, it was a normal progression. Colgan Air said yesterday that Renslow's training for the Dash 8-Q400 Bombardier didn't include a demonstration or simulation of the stick-pusher system. It noted that the FAA doesn't require a simulator demonstration of the stick-pusher and added that Renslow "had all the training and experience required to safely operate the Q400." A stick-pusher automatically kicks in when a plane is going into a stall, pointing the aircraft's nose down so it can pick up enough speed to allow the pilot to guide it to a recovery. However, Renslow pulled back on the plane's control column, apparently trying to bring the aircraft out of the dive by raising the nose up. Pushing forward to gain speed is the proper procedure if the aircraft is in a stall caused by a disruption of airflow over the wings. But in a less common tail stall, pulling back would be the appropriate response. The activation of a stick pusher can be a jarring experience for any Pilot, especially if the Pilot has never experienced it before, said William Waldock, an aviation science professor at Embry-Riddle University in Prescott, Ariz. The natural response is to pull back unless you've been trained through repetition to push forward, he said. Flight 3407 experienced an aerodynamic stall after the control column was pulled back. The plane repeatedly rolled left, and then right and then plunged from the sky, landing on a house about 5 miles from the Airport. The NTSB recommended 2 years ago that the FAA study whether Pilot training on stick-pushers should be improved. It appears the agency didn't change its guidance on stick-pusher training when it revised its training manual last fall on how to recover from a stall, sources said. An FAA spokesman said the agency places its emphasis on teaching Pilots on how to avoid getting into a situation where a stall occurs, rather than how to recover from one.
