Aviation News

One woman was killed and up to 38 people were injured when a Tiger Moth taking part in a small German air show ran into the crowd Sunday. The accident happened at the Lillinghof airfield about 20 miles from Nuremberg. Witnesses told German media the vintage biplane was taking off when it veered off the runway and into the crowd. About 5,000 people were on hand for the event, which featured mostly small aircraft and an AN-2 Russian transport. It was the second air show fatality on the weekend in Germany.

The provincial government of British Columbia is suing Transport Canada, among others, to recover the cost of medical treatment for passengers injured in an horrific balloon accident in 2007. B.C. says Transport Canada didn't do enough to ensure the commercial ballooning company involved was properly qualified and equipped to carry out the type of flight that ended in disaster on Aug.24, 2007. Two people were trapped and died and most of the 11 others were hurt when they jumped from the balloon's basket after a propane fire erupted. Under Canada's public medical system, provincial governments fund a major portion of healthcare. Earlier this year, British Columbia enacted a law enabling it to recover the cost of treatment of those injured due to negligence or criminal acts. The province alleges at least four of the passengers suffered serious injuries, including brain injury, burns, broken bones and traumatic stress disorder. The mother and grown daughter who died couldn't escape and burned to death as the balloon broke its tether and shot 400 feet before the basket broke loose, landing in a campground, destroying several cars and RVs in the ensuing fire.

Steven Slater has made his final exit from JetBlue. The airline confirmed Saturday that Slater, the allegedly frustrated flight attendant who popped the emergency slide on an E190, grabbed two beer from the galley and abandoned the aircraft at JFK last month, is no longer with the airline. Slater achieved Internet folk hero status after his dramatic departure, allegedly triggered by an altercation with a female passenger who ignored instructions to remain seated until the plane was chocked. Slater later said he'd been bonked in the head by the passenger's carry-on as she, against his instructions, pulled it from the overhead. Slater was later quoted as saying he wanted his job back but the airline deflated that dream with brief statement.

The UPS Boeing 747-400 that crashed in Dubai Friday was only three years old and had less than 10,000 hours on it according to a news release issued by the company on Saturday. UPS identified the pilots killed in the crash as Capt. Doug Lampe, 48, of Louisville, KY and FO Matthew Bell, 38, of Sanford, FL. They were based in Anchorage. The aircraft. According to Dubai's National newspaper, the pilot reported a fire on board and was trying to return to the airport. The aircraft had been airborne for 38 minutes before the crash. There is also speculation the pilot deliberately headed for an empty area of a military base where it crashed. There were no injuries on the ground. The cockpit voice recorder was recovered on Saturday but the flight data recorder has not been recovered.

A flyer left by the DHS in an FBO at Hickory Regional Airport in North Carolina makes bullet points of suspicious behavior associated with illegal activities but ensnares some behavior pilots might consider routine. The flyer was left at the FBO about two weeks ago by federal agents and lists suspicious activities that include customers who: insist on paying in cash; are vague about their itinerary; fly in with a dirty undercarriage; use self-service fueling early in the morning or late at night; seek temporary hangarage for their aircraft; fly a "worn out" plane with a "very nice" GPS; or travel with "excessive" luggage. The posting listed special agents to contact "if you encounter such suspicious activity." It also offered a reward of "up to $250,000" for information "relating to the transportation or storage of contraband and/or criminal proceeds." The list did also include some activities that might be considered suspicious by a larger group of pilots.

A UPS 747-400 out of Dubai for Cologne crashed after take-off Friday at about noon EST, within the perimeter of a military base, killing its two crew after suffering an onboard fire, according to early reports. A statement from civil aviation authorities said "measures were taken to contain the fire which broke out on board," but did not directly indicate where the fire was located within the aircraft. Witnesses have reported they saw the jet was on fire before it crashed. The crash took place some 18 miles from Dubai International airport and early reports did not indicate additional casualties on the ground.

Two years ago, a Spanair MD-82 crashed on takeoff at Madrid, killing 154 people and marking Spain's worst air tragedy in 25 years; now, malicious code infecting a maintenance department computer has been implicated in the crash. To be clear, the code was not flown on the aircraft's own systems and did not cause the crash. This specific crash could have been avoided regardless of the malware's existence. But the discovery of malicious code introduced into an on-ground system operated by the airline's maintenance department does suggests certain negative possibilities. One possible scenario is that the code slowed a program which, if properly maintained, would have flagged the aircraft for service and disallowed the takeoff because of a series of smaller problems already noted with the plane. That's a lot of qualifiers. But the fact that the system was infected and didn't flag the aircraft in this case closed one door on an opportunity to save the flight. It also suggests the urgency of proper computer maintenance throughout the entire airline system to assure safety of flight.

Existing airport community homeowners might enjoy continued "through the fence" access to their associated runways, but things may be very different for similar communities in the future, according to AOPA. In 2009, the FAA sought to eliminate through the fence access to airport taxiways and runways for aircraft based on adjacent private property. That general layout is popular at many airport community neighborhoods. AOPA says the FAA is now leaning toward a more considered approach for those airports that currently include, or were largely built around, a through the fence concept. At those airports, AOPA says the FAA may avoid broad-stroke regulation and apply a by-case approach. But looking forward, there's still a chance that aiports seeking to provide those access privileges in the future may simply be out of luck.

By now you've likely heard about John and Martha King being held at gunpoint by police in Santa Barbara last weekend. We've already heard from more than 100 readers about how they feel about the whole thing. Now, we want to know how you feel — not about what happened to the Kings, but where GA fits in the whole scheme of security and crime.Plus: Last week, we asked AVweb readers about a mid-air collision between a radio-controlled model airplane and a biplane — and whether that indicated a need for new regulations. Click through to see the breakdown of answers.

Your AirVenture photos continue to dominate the "POTW" submission box! This one, from John E. Rees of Blacklick, Ohio, is our latest baseball cap winner (and, incidentally, our current desktop wallpaper).

Air Force veteran Richard Young will attempt, this Sept. 11, to establish a closed-course speed record using unleaded fuel developed by Swift Enterprises. Young will be flying his one-of-a-kind Western Air Racing Special, which is a "purpose built closed course pylon racer" that he flew at Reno in 2007, 2008, and 2009, according to his website. The current and applicable closed-course speed record for a piston-engine aircraft weighing between 300 and 500 kilograms was set in 2004 at 238 mph, according to Young. That aircraft burned conventional leaded avgas. Young hopes to run the course at 260 mph in his aircraft burning Swift's product and "verify the performance characteristics of clean burning bio fuel" at the same time. That could be difficult to do in one 62.1 mile stint flown at 260 mph (or about 15 minutes), but we'll be watching for whatever information the attempt produces.

Chandler Negrete, an 8-year-old boy, is preparing to fly from Arizona to New York in a Cessna 172 with an instructor to raise money for children with parents serving overseas in the military. The instructor will wield pilot-in-command responsibility for the flight, but clearly the intent is to get Negrete some stick time. The third-grader is currently preparing for the flight and has accumulated all of 12 hours in a simulator and 12 hours in an actual airplane. His instructor, Matt Forsey, works for Sawyer Aviation in Arizona. The team is seeking donations and hopes to raise between $80,000 and $100,000 for their charity's cause. But, according to a local news report, Negrete "needs to collect $15,000 in donations to cover the cost of the flight," and no date has yet been set for the trip. Of course, for some pilots, simply the proposition of the flight itself may conjure memories of another one altogether.

NASA is often perceived as being all about space, but this week the agency said it will offer scholarships to encourage students to pursue careers in aeronautics research to develop vehicles that fly in the atmosphere as well as in space. Twenty grants of up to $15,000 per year for two years will be awarded to undergraduates, and graduate students can receive up to $35,000 per year for up to three years. All the students can also apply for summer research internships at NASA, which pay a $10,000 stipend. "We want more students to pursue careers in aeronautics," said Jaiwon Shin, associate administrator for the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "By offering these scholarships, we are extending to students not just an opportunity to become familiar with NASA's research, but also an extra dose of inspiration. Scholarships are an excellent way for us to attract talented young innovators to our work force."

For a while now, an ASTM committee that develops the standards for light sport aircraft to operate under instrument flight rules has struggled to reach consensus on a key point -- whether Special-LSAs should be allowed to fly in actual instrument meteorological conditions -- and although the committee members still disagree, they have decided to move forward and change the standards to prohibit the use of S-LSAs in IMC. That proposed change now must go through some further approvals and then be submitted to the FAA for an OK before it takes effect. That process could take until the end of this year or perhaps longer, Dan Johnson, chairman of the Light Aircraft Manufacturing Association, told AVweb on Wednesday. The change will not be retroactive, Johnson said. Any S-LSA that is flying today, or that is built before the new standard takes effect, is not prohibited from IMC flight if the aircraft is properly equipped and flown by a qualified pilot (although manufacturers may choose to prohibit IMC flight in their aircraft even when the ASTM standard allows it).

Nate Foster, a 17-year-old from Maryland who took off in August to fly across the U.S. in a Piper Cub, has made it safely to Monterey, Calif., according to the Baltimore Sun. Foster received his private pilot certificate just a few days before launch, but he had logged about 150 hours at the controls since the age of 14. He completed the trip in just six days, staying mostly on schedule except for one day waiting out thunderstorms in a small Nevada town. He flew across the Rockies via a 12,000-foot pass, and told the Sun the scariest part of the trip was flying across the wide, empty spaces along the border of Wyoming and Nebraska. "It was like flying over the moon," he said. "I felt this horrible loneliness. I just had to get out of there."

The Santa Barbara police chief had the decency and class to apologize to John and Martha King after holding them at gunpoint over the weekend following an erroneous stolen aircraft report. Unfortunately, as Paul Bertorelli reports on the AVweb Insider blog, pilots are uniquely vulnerable to this sort of thing — and we wonder how many agencies would bother with the apology, much less the extra mile to avoid these things in the first place. Read more and join the conversation.

Pilots authorized by air traffic controllers to taxi onto runways and await takeoff clearance will be instructed to "line up and wait" rather than "position and hold" beginning on Sept. 30, the FAA reminded pilots this week. The new terminology, which was recommended by the NTSB, conforms to the terminology established in guidelines of the International Civil Aviation Organization. Also, an FAA safety analysis found that the new phraseology will eliminate confusion, particularly among pilots who also fly overseas, and will further reduce the risk of runway incursions. Starting Sept. 30, controllers will state the aircraft's call sign, state the departure runway and then instruct pilots to "line up and wait," as in, "Cessna N2090W, Runway 33L, line up and wait." The phrase "traffic holding in position" will continue to be used to advise other aircraft that traffic has been authorized to line up and wait on an active runway.

Problems stemming from simulator training have been cited as contributing factors in airline accidents that caused more than half of the 522 fatalities over the last decade, according to a USA Today analysis published on Tuesday. Most recently, the NTSB cited deficient simulator training as a contributing factor in its final report on a December 2008 accident in Denver, in which six people were severely hurt when a Continental 737 ran off a Denver runway. Simulated crosswind training in the airline industry is "inadequate," the NTSB reported, due to "deficient simulator wind gust modeling" that fails to provide pilots with "realistic gusty crosswind training." USA Today noted that simulators also were cited in the NTSB reports on last year's fatal Colgan Air crash and the November 2001 crash of an American Airlines A300 in which 265 people died.

Gulfstream's new G650 recently reached Mach 0.995 on a test flight, which the company says establishes the business jet as the world's fastest civil aircraft. That title that has long been held by Cessna's Citation X, which flies at Mach 0.92. Gulfstream said the G650 achieved the maximum speed during flutter testing, when the test crew took Serial Number 6001 into a dive, pitching the nose 16 to 18 degrees below the horizon. During the dive, flutter exciters introduced a range of vibration frequencies to the wing, tail and flight control surfaces to ensure the aircraft naturally dampened out the oscillations without input from the pilots. "The airplane is very predictable," said test pilot Tom Horne. "It's very easy to control and to get precise control at those speeds."

Heard on the air near KTRK (runways 19 and 28 in use today):Cessna:"Truckee Unicom, Twin Cessna XXX eight miles southwest. Runway advisory, please."Unicom:"Winds are 190 at 20, gusting 30. All runways are open."Cessna (slightly clueless sound in his voice) :"Do you have a suggested runway?"Unicom:"Most aircraft are using 19, right traffic."Cessna:"Roger. 19, right traffic."Eric Niedrauervia e-mail

>>> AVWEB FUEL FINDERCURRENT PRICE FOR 100LL: $4.76 (down 1¢ from last week)CURRENT PRICE FOR JET A: $4.42 (down 2¢ from last week)Fuel prices provided weekly by AirNav, based on prices from the past 2 weeks. Changes are relative to last week's prices. /TEXT_ONLY-->http://media.avweb.com/banmanavweb/a.aspx?Task=Click&ZoneID=0&CampaignID=5860&AdvertiserID=167&BannerID=2980&SiteID=19&RandomNumber=251669563&Keywords=/TEXT_ONLY-->AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Montgomery Aviation at Indianapolis Executive Airport (KTYQ) in Zionsville, Indiana.AVweb reader Brian Johnson tells us Montgomery is the cream of the crop in his region:... [B]y far the best experience I have had with an FBO in my 18 years of flying. They are very courteous, helpful and responsive. I have been part of Eagle Flyers, their local flying club, for the past two years, and it has been a wonderful experience. Very well-maintained aircraft, reasonable prices, good availability and excellent service — this is the type of FBO that inspires current and future general aviation pilots.Keep those nominations coming. For complete contest rules, click here.AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBOs in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!

Wanna go fast and climb like hell? That's what the Silver Eagle Conversion of a P210 with a Rolls Royce turbine engine does. Aviation Consumer's Paul Bertorelli recently took a flight demo in the airplane.

John and Martha King's brush with the authorities in Santa Barbara on Saturday is apparently the second time this airplane has been detained and its pilot questioned because it shares an N-number with a Cessna 150 stolen eight years ago. According to aviation blogger Max Trescott, former Cessna employee Jim Pitman picked up the factory-fresh Skyhawk in Independence and flew it to Wichita for meetings. On landing he was met by Wichita police, who quickly ironed out the mix-up and sent him on his way. Why that didn't trigger an update to the databases that were consulted to create the situation in Santa Barbara is a question sure to come up as aviation group leaders, including AOPA President Craig Fuller, demand answers from authorities over the treatment of the Kings. As we reported earlier, aviation's most prominent husband-and-wife team is calling on government agencies to keep their databases up to date and warning pilots and aircraft owners they could be next to be surrounded by heavily armed police, handcuffed and detained because of a bit of miscommunication.

LEDs are a terrific technology to replace old, failure-prone landing light bulbs. And the fact that you can leave them on constantly means the aircraft is more conspicuous, thus reducing the collision risk. Yet the FAA has so complicated the unnecessary approval process for these products that the market has been nearly strangled. In the latest installment of our AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli explains the details. Click here to read more.

The Avgas Coalition, which is made up of aviation industry groups and petroleum industry organizations, has told EPA more study is needed to determine whether leaded aviation fuel actually poses a risk great enough to warrant an "endangerment finding." Such a finding would be the first step in banning lead from avgas. AOPA and the coalition both responded to EPA's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking and AOPA said in a statement it doesn't think there's enough evidence for the EPA to issue the endangerment finding. "The coalition comments highlight the need for sound data and a better understanding of the issue before we can develop an effective, scientifically sound roadmap that puts air safety first and foremost while attempting to address real environmental concerns," said AOPA President Craig Fuller. The fundamental issue is whether emissions from piston aircraft exceed the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for lead. At the same time, however, AOPA's statement seems to accept as inevitable that leaded aviation fuel will go away. "The coalition will continue to work closely with the EPA and FAA to develop a plan to transition to an unleaded fuel that addresses safety, economic and environmental concerns," the statement said. EPA didn't need that kind of long and complicated process to decide on how to deal with another source of environmental lead, however.

Mexicana, Mexico's largest airline, stopped flying at noon on Saturday, telling passengers still holding tickets it was sorry for the inconvenience. The airline entered bankruptcy protection earlier and was trying to reorganize when parent company Grupo Mexicana pulled the pin, citing, among other things, the inability to reach deals with unionized employees. "Financial deterioration and lack of agreements forced Grupo Mexicana to stop flying," the company said in a statement. The collapse also shut down the company's budget spinoffs Click and Link, even though both were reportedly making money. Those who've paid for flights can apply for refunds and efforts are being made to help out at least some passengers who had already flown one or more legs of their trip. Meanwhile, Mexicana's chief competitor Aeromexico is offering discounted fares to those holding Mexicana tickets.

Arizona education officials have decided against following California in imposing potentially onerous financial and regulatory requirements on Part 61 flight schools. The Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education unanimously rejected a proposal to consider Part 61 flight schools as "vocational" programs. Doing so would have made the generally smaller and less federally regulated schools subject to financial performance regulations and annual fees aimed at least partly at ensuring students would be protected if the school suddenly ceased operations. Aviation groups and flight instructor organizations spoke against the Arizona proposal at a meeting in Phoenix last week, saying the new rules might force otherwise upstanding and successful flight schools out of business. However, a group that loosely represents students who have collectively lost tens of millions of dollars to corrupt or incompetent flight schools has a different take on the Arizona decision.

The Navy says it's working on a software glitch that resulted in a helicopter drone flying autonomously toward Washington, D.C., last week. The Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout UAV is no toy helicopter. It grosses out at 3,150 pounds and is nearly 24 feet from nose-mounted multi-sensing eye to tail rotor. On Aug. 2, while undergoing testing at NAS Patuxent River, the remote control pilot lost the data link with the UAV. "When they lose contact with the Fire Scout, there's a program that's supposed to have it immediately return to the airfield to land safely," Cmdr Danny Hernandez told The New York Times. "That did not happen as planned." This time, the automation failed and the UAV headed for Washington.

British Airways is investigating how an automated message came to be played on Aug. 24 over the intercom of an otherwise healthy in-flight 747, telling all 275 passengers the jet was going to ditch. The message, delivered by what a British tabloid called a "calm female voice," said (according to multiple other sources), "This is an emergency. We may shortly need to make an emergency landing on water." The aircraft was out of Heathrow for Hong Kong and over the North Sea at the time. As passengers began to absorb and perhaps imaginatively elaborate on the message, cabin crew "immediately made an announcement," and advised passengers that the warning "was played in error" and "the flight would continue as normal," according to British Airways. A BA spokesman told Bloomberg News the message can be activated in a number of ways -- none of which are accessible to pilots in the cockpit.

Having most recently set its sights on late this year, Boeing is blaming Rolls-Royce for the latest in a series of delays that now has the company estimating first delivery of its 787 Dreamliner sometime in the first part of next year. Boeing says it needs Rolls-Royce's Trent 1000 engines, an engine option for the 787, for the final phase of flight testing this fall. Rolls-Royce says it can not support that schedule but is working with Boeing to expedite delivery of the engines. A 787 engine being tested at a Rolls-Royce facility in early August suffered an uncontained failure that significantly damaged both the engine and its casing. Boeing and Rolls-Royce previously said that failure would not impact the airliner's delivery schedule. With the most recent delay, the Dreamliner may now run at least three years behind schedule, and that passes significant costs to Boeing. The company's first customer appears to be understanding of the latest delay even as already completed "production" 787s sit engine-less near Seattle.