Travel Safety Update

Airguide Online, August 27, 2007

Aug 27, 2007

Search Restarts For Crash Plane's Black Box A US-operated salvage ship has arrived at the coastal area where an Indonesian plane crashed with 102 passengers on board, and will try to recover the aircraft's black box, an airline official said on Thursday. Aug 23, 2007

Controller reveals secrets from tower. A new book by veteran air traffic controller Bob Richards recounts his experience directing planes at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. In a review of the book "Secrets from the Tower," Jon Hilkevitch notes that Richards shares errors made on the job as well as how he kept his drug and alcohol abuse a secret. Aug 21, 2007

FAA should boost pilot retirement age. The FAA should allow healthy commercial airline pilots to continue flying until they are 65, the Houston Chronicle editorial board writes. The board also notes that it will take years before a proposal to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65 is put in place. In the meantime, the FAA should grant waivers to U.S. pilots approaching 60. "Safety would not be affected, and the pilots would remain in the cockpit, where they are needed to counter a looming pilot shortage," the board writes. Aug 21, 2007

Fair system needed for funding air traffic control. The nation's air traffic control system is simply unable to handle the growing number of travelers, Air Transport Association President and CEO James May writes in the Chicago Tribune. A fair, predictable funding mechanism for modernization will help solve the problem, he notes. The ATA supports a mileage and departure-based funding formula that will require airlines to pay for the costs they impose on the system, May writes. Aug 21, 2007

Alaska volcano eruption could affect international flights. Alaska's Pavlof Volcano, 590 miles southwest of Anchorage, may soon have a massive eruption, potentially affecting international flight paths. The FAA sent advisories to airlines that might be operating in the area and is monitoring the situation, said a spokesman. If there is a severe eruption, flights would have to be diverted, possibly resulting in delays, he said. Aug 20, 2007

Aviation delays are a problem that can't wait: FAA Administrator Marion Blakey puts the problem in stark terms: "We are at a breaking point." The problem is the aging air traffic control system, which needs to be replaced. How to fund the new system is another problem. The FAA and ATA agree that corporate jet owners need to start paying for the resources they use. An ATA spokesman asks, "The CEO of Google has a Boeing 767 -- should he be paying a fraction of what the airlines pay to use the airways?" Aug 20, 2007

NextGen ATC will mean changes on the ground. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, weighs in on some changes that must be made on the ground if the NextGen air traffic control system is to produce savings for taxpayers. For a start, Congress will have to let the FAA close facilities that are no longer needed. Aug 20, 2007

Safety, customer service important to airlines. Air Transport Association President and CEO James May sets the record straight, asserting that airlines are doing their best to safely get travelers to their destinations. When delays occur, carriers accommodate passengers as best they can with essential onboard services. The only real "fix" for delays lies in an updated air traffic control system that can handle modern traffic volumes. Aug 20, 2007

Adam Air, Boeing

A US navy ship with specialized equipment detected signals in January which were thought to be from the plane's flight recorder, when the ship was part of the search for the missing Adam Air Boeing 737 plane in Indonesia. Adam Air spokesman Danke Sudrajat said that crew from the salvage ship would first survey the area where the plane crashed off Sulawesi island. Efforts to recover the black box, which refers to the flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder, were delayed due to disagreements between the government and Adam Air over who should bear the cost. Experts said in January that retrieving the flight recorder, set up to give off a signal for 30 days to aid detection, may be difficult as it could be at a depth of up to 1,700 metres (5,600 feet). Locating the black box may be even tougher now as it may have shifted position or been covered by sediment. The 17-year-old plane was heading from Surabaya in East Java to Manado in northern Sulawesi when it vanished in bad weather. The plane made no distress call, although the pilot had reported concerns over crosswinds. Aug 23, 2007

Adam Air, Boeing

Search Restarts For Crash Plane's Black Box. A US-operated salvage ship has arrived at the coastal area where an Indonesian plane crashed with 102 passengers on board, and will try to recover the aircraft's black box, an airline official said on Thursday. The Boeing 737-400, operated by budget carrier Adam Air, went down on New Year's day in the sea off south Sulawesi in one of the country's worst air disasters. No survivors were found, and while wreckage from the plane showed up weeks after the crash, the black box has never been retrieved, making it difficult to determine the cause of the disaster. Aug 23, 2007