TSA BRIEFING NEW ADMINISTRATOR ON ASO ELIMINATION

Transcription

1 TSA BRIEFING NEW ADMINISTRATOR ON ASO ELIMINATION by Kerry Lynch OCTOBER 13, 2015, 9:45 AM The TSA continues to make progress on a recommendation to eliminate the armed security officer (ASO) requirement for business aircraft flights to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, but the proposal is still being coordinated both within the agency and externally, the agency said. TSA officials last month briefed industry leaders on a range of security initiatives during a closed-door session of the Aviation Security Advisory Committee (ASAC). According to the minutes of that meeting, the TSA has worked with other government agencies to obtain the necessary concurrences and is also in the process of briefing the issue to the new TSA Administrator. Peter Neffenger has headed the TSA since July 4. In February the ASAC recommended that TSA eliminate the ASO altogether. That recommendation came at the behest of the agency, which had asked the ASAC to act quickly on the measure to help with interagency coordination. In addition to the ASO requirement, the TSA is in final review of updates to the Security Guidelines for General Aviation Operators and Users document before issuance to the general aviation community. The updates are expected to reflect changes in security guidance and programs that have occurred over the past decade. The ASAC also discussed potential revisions to screening requirements of foreign national flight training candidates. Discussions of the revisions have been ongoing since last month. The ASAC is set to meet next month

2 RESEARCHERS WORK TO REDUCE POST-CRASH AIRCRAFT FIRES by Curt Epstein OCTOBER 8, 2015, 4:54 PM These demonstration photos show the relative levels of jet fuel combustion under crash conditions. Top: without the fuel additive; bottom: with the addition of the polymer additive. (Photo: Caltech/JPL) Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and NASA s Jet Propulsion Laboratory say they have discovered a polymer fuel additive that can reduce the intensity of post-accident jet fuel explosions without altering the fuel s performance. The work, published in the October 2 issue of Science, describes how the polymer molecules form long chains known as megasupramolecules, which change the jet fuel s flow behavior by reducing its tendency for misting, or forming tiny easily combustible droplets during impact, while still allowing it to be sprayed through fuel injectors under normal conditions. During a crash, the supramolecules that otherwise remain coiled are activated by the sudden elongation of the fluid and stretch. That stretching allows them to inhibit the misting tendencies of fuel droplets. The next phase of the research lies in developing a method to mass produce the additive. Above all, we hope these new polymers will save lives and minimize burns that result from post-impact fuel fires, said Caltech professor of chemical engineering and lead researcher Dr. Julia Kornfield.

3 DUTCH SAFETY BOARD BLAMES ICAO, STATES FOR MH17 FAILURES by Gregory Polek OCTOBER 13, 2015, 10:37 AM The Dutch Safety Board cited several aviation parties for their failure to recognize the risks to a Malaysia Airlines Boeing as it flew over a conflict zone in eastern Ukraine on July 17, (Photo: Flickr: Creative Commons (BY) by lkarasawa) The Dutch Safety Board has assigned culpability for a failure to recognize the risks to Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 while it flew over a conflict zone in Eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, to several aviation parties involved including the International Civil Aviation Organization and member states. In a report issued Tuesday, the Dutch authorities also cited Ukraine for its failure to issue any specific warnings of risks to civil aviation during the period in which the conflict expanded into its airspace. ICAO did not see any reason for questioning Ukraine or offering assistance, it added.

4 The report concluded that a 9N314M warhead detonated outside and above the left side of the cockpit of the ill-fated Malaysia Airlines Boeing , causing structural damage to the forward part of the airplane and leading to in-flight disintegration, immediately killing the three people in the cockpit. All 298 of the airplane s occupants lost their lives as the airplane broke apart, leaving wreckage over a 50-square-kilometer area between the Ukrainian village of Petropavlivka and the town of Hrabove. The report identified the type of missile used as a 9M38- series, as installed on a Russian-made Buk surface-to-air missile system. The report concluded that Ukrainian authorities should have closed the airspace over eastern Ukraine as a precaution after they learned of the downing of two military airplanes in the area on July 14 and 16. Statements made by the authorities indicated that they suspected the use of weapons systems capable of reaching the cruising altitude of civil airplanes, it added. The safety board noted that not only Malaysia Airlines, but almost all other airlines that used the route over the conflict zone continued to do so as the armed conflict expanded into the airspace. On the day of the crash alone, 160 flights operated over the area of eastern Ukraine until authorities finally closed the airspace. The Chicago Convention provides states the option of imposing flight prohibitions on airlines and issuing recommendations related to the use of foreign airspace. Although MH17 took off from Dutch soil, the Netherlands did not bear any formal responsibility for the flight because it involved a non-dutch airline, however. Meanwhile, the fact that the flight operated under a codeshare with KLM did not provide any legal authority either. During the period in which the conflict zone in eastern Ukraine expanded into its airspace, from April 2014 to the time of the crash, not a single state or international authority explicitly warned of any risks to civil aviation, said the report. In response to its findings, the board recommended that ICAO incorporate in standards that states experiencing an armed conflict at an early stage publish information as specific as possible regarding the nature and extent of the threats. It also recommended that ICAO ask states for more information if published aeronautical or other publications give cause to do so and offer assistance and consider issuing a State Letter if, in its opinion, the state in question does not fulfill its responsibility for the safety of its airspace. Further recommendations call for ICAO to convert so-called recommended practices into standards under which states can take unambiguous measures to ensure the safety of its airspace. The board also recommended that the International Air Transport Association (IATA) ensure that its Operational Safety Audits (IOSA) reflect standards regarding risk assessment.

5 CONTROLLERS UNION RAISES ALARM ON ATC STAFFING, SEEKS HEARING by Bill Carey OCTOBER 15, 2015, 8:55 AM For a fifth year, the FAA missed its controller hiring target, according to National Air Traffic Controllers Association. (Photo: Natca) Warning that air traffic controller staffing is at a crisis point, the union representing most U.S. controllers called on Congress this week to hold a hearing on the chronic understaffing of ATC facilities managed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The facilities serving some of the nation s busiest airspace sections are among the understaffed operations, according to the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (Natca).

6 I want to be clear: The safety of the air traffic control system is not at risk, said Natca president Paul Rinaldi. But maintaining safety is coming at the cost of efficiency and modernization. We have far too few controllers in our towers and radar rooms. The number of controllers the FAA employs has declined by 8.7 percent since 2011, from 15,236 to 13,906, according to Natca figures. This year there are 10,859 certified professional controllers (CPCs) the most proficient job status which is the lowest level in 27 years, the union said. Thirty percent, or 3,355, of CPCs are eligible to retire at any time, with only 1,203 CPCs in training and 1,844 developmental controllers in line to replace them if they complete the training regimen. Twenty-five percent of trainees do not complete the training and certify. At facilities the FAA considers inadequately staffed, the agency requires controllers to work sixday weeks by using overtime pay, Natca said. These include terminal radar approach control facilities serving airports in metropolitan Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and New York. For the fifth consecutive year, the FAA in Fiscal Year 2015 missed its controller hiring goal, Natca said. As of August 22, roughly a month before the federal fiscal year ended, the agency had hired 1,178 of a planned 1,772 new controllers. If the staffing situation is not addressed, Natca warns, the nation could see flight delays similar to those it experienced in April 2013 when controllers were furloughed due to sequestration budget cuts. Over seven days of furloughs, there were 12,760 flight delays, more than three times the 3,860 delays during the same period in 2014, according to Natca. We have been working with the FAA to address this mutual concern for several years now. However, the situation now warrants legislator and industry scrutiny, said Trish Gilbert, the union s executive vice president. Maintaining safety is our top priority, but without proper staffing at our facilities, efficiency and modernization efforts could be negatively impacted. The staffing crisis is a systemic problem and deteriorating daily. Natca is calling on Congress to take action, but Congress is also complicit in the staffing shortage. The federal government shutdown and budget cuts in 2013 caused the FAA to close its ATC training academy in Oklahoma City for nine months, delaying initial training for several classes of controllers, the agency noted in a response to the Natca announcement. The FAA shares Natca s frustration with air traffic controller staffing levels, the agency said. The FAA has conducted several rounds of air traffic controller hiring over the past two years in an effort to continue to feed enough controllers into the training pipeline to meet the agency s expected staffing needs. The agency is planning additional job announcements in the future to recruit new controllers to meet ongoing staffing needs. As of October 14 the House aviation subcommittee had not scheduled a hearing on controller staffing. But this is an issue the Committee has followed and we will continue to look into the matter, the subcommittee told AIN. The safety of the aviation system is always our top

7 priority, and we need to maintain the highest level of safety while we ensure the efficiency of the system. ATC