Just this year:

• FAA is now under its twelfth short-term authorization, valid until the start of July.
• Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) had put a hold on the bill, due to his interest in protecting FedEx from unionization.  On March 11, he lifted his hold, because language changing labor laws, was removed (via tradingmarkets.com).
• Family members of the victims of Flight 3407 lobbied tirelessly for increased regulation and oversignt for regional airlines (via WGRZ).  Pilot training, pilot records and pilot fatigue are all addressed.

WKBW News has a good summary of what the Senate passed.  The next step is to resolve differences with the House version.  Hopefully it won’t take three months, but yesterday, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) said, “we have our work cut out for us,” to reconcile (via @AvWeekScho).

• Funding of NextGen, the future air traffic control system, is a point of contention for some interest groups.  Airlines will be required to pay for their onboard equipment (Seattle Times).  But, it is otherwise a very expensive project.   FAA defended the costs late last week (from nextgov).
• Use or not of passenger and facility fees is of interest to groups like the Air Transport Association and the American Association of Airport Executives, who are to have their voices heard as reconciliation begins.
• The labor law language Sen. Corker opposed will still need to be worked out.  More on the disputed items from GovExec.
• The Senate version includes a “Passenger Bill of Rights,” which aims to limit the time spent on the tarmac, in the event of delays.  Some airlines have said complying would be a hardship and, at certain airports, have already requested extensions (New York Times).

For everyone (legislators, staff, interest groups, industry, concerned citizens) who worked toward this for the last four years, thank you!  Although there is satisfaction, I imagine (and have heard) there is also a bit of resentment.  Four years is a long time to be operating in a tentative framework.  For the goverment agencies, it is especially difficult to operate with no long-term directive.  So, may this be the beginning of something better.

Sadly, last evening, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 409 caught fire (from early reports) and crashed shortly after takeoff from Beirut, Lebanon.  Airsafe.com has a good summary, as of Monday afternoon.  It appears as though none of the passengers or crew survived.  The investigation will be ongoing.

On the Hill This Week

As was the case last week, congressional committees continue to follow up on their understanding of the NW253 incident on Christmas Day.  But also, the confirmation process of a nominee to the FAA and the reauthorization process of the NTSB will be moving forward.  This week (via GovExec), they are:

• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee – Hearing [ 09:30 am, 01/26/2010 ]
  Full committee hearing on “Intelligence Reform: The Lessons and Implications of the Christmas Day Attack,” focusing on the attempted bombing incident on Flight 253 to Detroit on December 25. (Part Two)
• House Homeland Security Committee – Hearing [ 10:00 am, 01/27/2010 ]
  Full committee hearing on “Flight 253: Learning Lessons from an Averted Tragedy.”
• Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee – Hearing [ 02:30 pm, 01/26/2010 ]
  Full committee hearing on the nominations of Michael Huerta, to be deputy administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration; David Matsuda, to be administrator of the Maritime Administration; and Timothy McGee, to be an assistant secretary in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, with responsibility for environmental observation and prediction.
• House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee – Hearing [ 10:00 am, 01/27/2010 ]
  Aviation Subcommittee hearing on “Reauthorization of the National Transportation Safety Board.”

Illinois: Two weeks ago, two died when a Lear jet crashed near Chicago Executive Airport (via WLS-TV).

Hawaii: Last week, on Oahu, two died in a small plane crash. In a preliminary report from the NTSB, the pilot was off course and the single engine Piper had no evident mechanical issues (via the Honolulu Advertiser).

Alabama: On Monday, two people died in a private twin engine plane crash near Madison, Alabama (via WANDTV).

Ohio: Also Monday, a twin engine plane with four passengers crashed in Lorain County, Ohio.  Three died.  The crash has sparked discussion about the possible impact of funding cuts to the Lorain Regional Airport (via WKYC-TV).

• Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee – Hearing [ 09:30 am, 01/20/2010 ]
  Full committee hearing on “Intelligence Reform: The Lessons and Implications of the Christmas Day Attack,” focusing on the attempted bombing incident on Flight 253 to Detroit on December 25.
  Witness(es): Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano; Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair; and Michael Leiter, head of the National Counterterrorism Center, testify.  The chairman, Senator Joe Lieberman, spoke about this committee hearing on NPR this morning.
• Senate Judiciary Committee – Hearing [ 10:00 am, 01/20/2010 ]
  Full committee hearing on “Securing America’s Safety: Improving the Effectiveness of Anti-Terrorism Tools and Inter-Agency Communication.”
  Witness(es): Robert Mueller, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Undersecretary of State for Management Patrick Kennedy; Assistant Homeland Security Secretary for Policy David Heyman, testify
• Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee – Hearing [ 02:30 pm, 01/20/2010 ]
  Full committee hearing on “The State of Aviation Security – Is Our Current System Capable of Meeting the Threat?” focusing on the attempted bombing incident on Flight 253 to Detroit on December 25.
  Witness(es): TBA
• Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee – Briefing [ 02:30 pm, 01/21/2010 ]
  Full committee closed hearing on the attempted bombing incident on Flight 253 to Detroit on December 25.

We are proud that Rosemary Dillard was on the Hill today representing NADA/F!

TSA Administrator

Also, much attention was paid to the fact that there was no TSA Administrator in place when the attempted bombing of NW253 occurred.  While Senator DeMint has opposed the nomination of Erroll Southers based on perceived differences of labor policy.  It was actually Southers’ past abuse of power, in his position as chief of security with the LAX police, that caused wider doubt as to his suitability for the job.  He has withdrawn himself from consideration (via CongressDaily and GovExec).  I have to say this is a good move, since these recent questions only prevented an efficient confirmation process.  And, this position needs to be filled!

There is so much to write about from this week and it is hard to try and keep up.  I’ll try to post my thoughts later!

Department of Homeland Security

Secretary Janet Napolitano made quite the misstep, when she originally stated that “the system worked (clip from CNN).”  In trying to assure people, her point was that the action taken subsequent to the fire on the flight was swift and appropriate.  But, it was misinterpreted to mean there was proactive action, which clearly, there wasn’t.

One other issue has come up with this first statement.  While she said all pilots in the air were informed, today the Coalition of Airline Pilots Association disputed that (via WOAW TV 9).  She and President Obama have since identified some of the human and systemic failings and we are learning more every day.  President Obama receives the report of preliminary findings today (via USA Today).

Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana was the first to call for Napolitano’s resignation (via The Hill).  This has become political very quickly and Republicans in Congress have taken this opportunity to criticize the adminstration policy (via AFP).

Transportation Security Administration

The Transportation Security Administration was swift to implement a modified directive that was supposed to be in place through yesterday.  But it was unclear at the time, if it applied to all flights, and for how long.  Among some of the actions taken on flights were  limiting passenger activity for the last hour of the flight and taking televisions and live maps offline.  Since, at least, two bloggers received the directive via email and posted it, there was plenty of online discussion of its contents, relevancy and consistency in implementation.  Many passengers were curious to know what would apply to them and the TSA was not very communicative.  FoxNews had the story online, before the Department of Homeland Security got involved.  Now many outlets are writing about the subsequent subpoenas and investigation.  But, here’s the link to the USA Today story on what happened.  I can say from my original interpretation, I don’t think they realized until later that they were the only ones who had it. 

To our best knowledge, TSA is no longer following that directive.  However, they are looking at expanding the use of full body scanners (via FoxNews), among other things.

Although Erroll Southers was nominated to be TSA Administrator in September, and is a former FBI special agent with counter-terrorism expertise, he has not been confirmed by the Senate.  Sen. Jim DeMint of South Carolina has blocked  the process over concerns the Southers is too friendly to collective bargaining (via WIBW).  I can’t help but think that not having a leader may just as much challenge an agency’s effectiveness as having a leader friendly to labor.  But, Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, says he will force a vote on the nominee in three weeks (Los Angeles Times).

Central Intelligence Agency and Department of State

I can only assume that these two agencies needed to contribute greatly to the preliminary report to President Obama.  Since we now know the suspect’s father communicated his concerns to the U.S. Embassy and the CIA (via ABC News), there must have been serious study of what happened (or didn’t) with that information. 

Intelligence and military leaders are also focused on the role Yemen likely played.  Yesterday, NPR ran a good story on the challenges there.

Since then, the suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was treated for his burns and is now being held at a federal prison in Michigan.  His detention hearing was postposed and is now scheduled for January 8 (via NY Post).  We have learned that he had ties to a Yemeni branch of al-Qaeda and that his family was concerned enough to bring him to the attention of the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria (via The Washington Post, subscription).  That report resulted in him being added, just a month later, to a U.S. terrorism-related database but not to any aviation watch list (The Washington Post).

NPR had an interview this evening with a witness to a potential accomplice.  He also seems to question whether or not the suspect had appropriate documentation to travel.

There is some discussion about whether or not the primary explosive, PETN, could have been detected with standard equipment.  The Washington Post has a good article on the kind of equipment that CAN detect it and the reasons it hasn’t been fully implemented.  A full pat-down may have revealed the detonator, but in this case, the suspect wasn’t identified for additional screening.  Schiphol, Amsterdam’s Airport, is undertaking a full investigation of their procedures (via The Wall Street Journal) and is obviously, a little defensive.

Since there is more to say on the topic of what TSA has done with their procedures in the days following and the subsequent sensitivity to behavior on planes since, I’ll post on that later!

What a strange story this has become, since all of the early speculation proved incorrect.  The pilots were not discussing or napping, rather distracted by personal laptop use (which violated company policy).  The NTSB has published their initial findings.  The Wall Street Journal has step-by-step recap.  Everybody is putting their thoughts out there, including The Cranky Flier and Jetwhine blogs.  There have been jokes and the happy ending to ease people’s minds.

But, two things come to mind for me as to why this is terribly problematic.  As Matt Ziemkiewicz asked in the comments of the previous post, what if fighter jets had been deployed?  With no communication ability, the hijacking assumption was a feasible one.  I still don’t have complete understanding of why they weren’t deployed (which is a separate issue), but what if?  Secondly, I assume the company policy against this is in part due to the level of distraction understood to be likely with personal technology devices.  I think of  last year’s Los Angeles train crash with the texting engineer (via Reuters).  I feel the pilots and passengers were quite fortunate.  But, I hope the pilots are held accountable for their poor judgement.

UPDATE:  The FAA Has Revoked the Pilots’ Licenses (via NPR).

Airbags and Crash Survivability

About the time the balloon (sans boy) was landing, I was on the FoxNews website looking for more information on that saga, but happened upon a good story and video on the AmSafe test facility.  I can’t find the video again, but the related blog post is here.  NPR’s story, which aired yesterday, examines the new FAA standard taking effect this week.

It requires protection of 16 times (up from 9 times) the force of gravity and AmSafe is offering airbags in seat belts as one way to achieve that.  It is all very interesting.  Good to see the standard improving.

Charter Airline Safety

Eric R. Byer on the NATA, Inside Washington Blog, has a critical response to the DOT Inspector General’s report entitled “On-Demand Carriers Have Less Stringent Safety Requirements Than Commercial Carriers.” Interesting comments on what, from their persepective, could be helpful on the FAA rule-making process.  But in Washington, is it really ever likely that we can do away with the politics?  I tend to view the reactionary rhetoric as part of the process, since most accidents, incidents or reports result in a period of that (typically before all the facts have been flushed out).

Tough Economic Times

The recession has obviously taken it toll on the American public’s ability to use air travel the way they have in the past.  Airlines are seeing fewer passengers, cutting flights and operational expense wherever they can and are attempting to offset losses by charging for “extras.”

Last week, The New York Times ran a story on the toll the cuts have taken on one pilot and his family.  There was a letter to the editor following.  Michael Moore has also taken up the topic in his new film and on his blog.  And so too, it became a topic of discussion among our members this week.  Let us all realize that this is a specialized skill set that is expensive and time-consuming to attain.  And, we entrust pilots with our lives.  Over at Jetwhine, there is a post this week asking “Who Will Fly for America Tomorrow?” Good question!

Landing Issues

Okay, that heading may be an understatement.  Monday, a Delta flight mistakenly landed on a taxiway instead of the designated runway at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.  And, yesterday, a Northwest flight passed right by its Minneapolis destination.

The FAA is investigating what could have been a very dangerous situation in Atlanta (via wbstv.com).  On the Northwest flight, the pilots claimed to have been discussing or arguing about airline policy (via NPR News and AP).  Although it has since been suggested that they may have been napping.  Since they did not have contact with controllers for over an hour, there was some initial concern that it could have been a hijack situation. Pending further investigation by the NTSB, the pilots have been suspended.

Briefly:

118 House members have signed a letter to President Obama encouraging the removal of user fees as a revenue source in the FAA Reauthorization Act.  The letter can be found here (via AOPA).  Business interests favor retaining the existing fuel tax structure, as it requires less administration.

A baby born on an AirAsia flight on Wednesday will get free flights for life (via Yahoo! News and AFP)!

NPR News is running a wonderfully informative special series this week on the outsourcing of airplane maintenance.  With the U.S. airline industry struggling financially in the post-9/11/01 world, this has been a trend for some time.  NADA/F has been an outspoken opponent of outsourcing this crucial work.  But this series calls attention to a newer shift.  Not only is maintenance going outside the airlines, but more recently, outside the U.S.

FAA inspects and approves these facilities, but FAA does not require airlines to report exactly which of these repair stations they actually use (via NPR).  So the stories focus a bit on federal oversight, which is of concern.  But I hope it goes without saying that the airlines themselves have a more difficult time monitoring the work done to their equipment when the work isn’t done in their proximity.  Their oversight is just as, if not more, important.  Today’s segment identifies some mistakes with US Airways planes repaired in El Salvador.

Based on the volume of comments I’ve seen so far on the NPR website and on Facebook, I understand that this is resonating with listeners and readers.  But, I suggest taking further action if this bothers you.  Contact your representation in Congress.  Think twice about which airlines you support with ticket (or stock) purchase.  The public and airline employees can make their dissatisfaction known.  Safety should not be compromised. 

UPDATE!  Part three of the series has aired on All Things Considered.  I was happy they could end on a positive note and the example of American Airlines.  The airline is establishing a new model for managment/labor relations and centralizing maintenance and repairs in Tulsa, Oklahoma.  They believe it can be cost-effective, but they are asking that international facilities be subject to the same FAA scrutiny that they are.  Sounds good, AA!