Flight International - January 13, 2015

SAVING MALAYSIA
IS THIS MAN SET TO

TAKE AVIATIONS
TOUGHEST JOB?
NEWS FOCUS P15
BOEING UP, UP, UP
Single-aisle orders lead

the way as Seattle defies
own predictions to report
best-ever backlog 13
WARSAW PACKED
Three bidders still in the

mix as Polish multirole
helicopter contest nears
evaluation phase 17
FLIGHT
INTERNATIONAL
13-19 JANUARY 2015
ANALYSIS
THE SAFEST
YEAR TO FLY
3.50
0 3
770015 371273
We look at 2014s record low fatal airliner

accident rate despite loss of MH370
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VOLUME 187 NUMBER 5471
13-19 JANUARY 2015
NEWS
WARSAW PACKED
THIS WEEK
Fall in crash count makes 2014 safer.
Helibras delivers armys upgrades
9 Tail location offers QZ8501 data hope.
Routine aircraft tracking closer to realisation
10 HeliVert partners plan to assemble AW189 in
Russia.
GAO ends Dream Chaser pursuit of NASA contract
11 CBP Predator B fleet takes heavy flak.
Rapid rise predicted for commercial UAV market
Three bidders still in the

mix as Polish multirole
helicopter contest nears
evaluation phase 17
FLIGHT
INTERNATIONAL
13-19 JANUARY 2015
ANALYSIS
THE SAFEST
YEAR TO FLY
0 3
We look at 2014s record low fatal airliner

accident rate despite loss of MH370
770015 371273
PA
3.50
Trevor Williams
COVER IMAGE
The Vietnamese air forces
Col Pham Minh Tuan takes
part in the search over the
Gulf of Thailand for missing
Malaysia Airlines MH370
in March 2014 P22
BEHIND THE HEADLINES

Operations and Safety Editor
David Learmount crunched
the numbers for our annual
airline safety review, which
shows 2014 was a recordbreaking year for the industry
(P22). He also looks at one
pilots theory on a possible
location for MH370 (P20)
AIR TRANSPORT
12 FAA to mandate SMS for all airlines.
Eva Air bids farewell to its final 747-400 Combi
13 Boeing boosts its backlog.
First ARJ21-700 delivery awaits CAAC validation.
Jet Airways ad fuels SpiceJet Q400 rumours
14 Troubled Transaero looks at deferrals.
Sudan appeals to ICAO over sanctions.
Wing-box for MC-21 enters testing phase
DEFENCE
16 Lavi unit heads for operational debut.
Iraqi pilots begin F-16 training in USA.
Russia sees the light with Il-112V
17 Bids in for Polish helicopter contest.
Upgraded Russian strategic bombers back on
duty
18 F-35 chiefs return fire on baseless cannon
reporting.
Hawkeye unit to take UCLASS fleet under its wing
BUSINESS AVIATION
19 Passport to success as GE begins engine flight
testing.
Gulfstream ships first all-new G650ER.
Piaggio prepares first Avanti Evos for service entry
Boeing adds 1,432 rm orders to record backlog P13
COVER STORY
22 AIRLINE SAFETY Believe it or not, its safer

to fly Despite public perception, 2014 was an
extraordinarily good year for aviation safety but
the gloom of MH370, MH17 and Decembers
AirAsia disaster casts a long shadow over the
positive figures
FEATURES
32 No second chance The industry needs to make a

radical shift in pilot training, to get flightcrews
safely in tune with modern airliner technology, but
the authorities are dragging their feet
34 Missing link Slow but steady progress is being
made towards the implementation of deployable
flight data recorders, although reliability is still a
concern
7
37
38
40
43
47
REGULARS
Comment
Straight & Level
Letters
Classied
Jobs
Working Week
Crown Copyright
NEWS FOCUS
15 Mending a broken airline
20 Can maths solve mystery of MH370s resting
place?
Boeing
SAVING MALAYSIA BOEING UP, UP, UP

IS THIS MAN SET TO Single-aisle orders lead
the way as Seattle defies
TAKE AVIATIONS
own predictions to report
TOUGHEST JOB?
best-ever backlog 13
NEWS FOCUS P15
Airbus Helicopters, NASA
NEXT WEEK EUROFIGHTER

Test pilot Peter Collins gets to
grips with the RAFs newest
Eurofighter Typhoon standard
in a BAE Systems simulator
EC725 in running for Polish helicopter requirement P17. Dream Chaser concept has NASA hopes dashed P10
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13-19 January 2015 | Flight International | 5
CONTENTS
IMAGE OF
THE WEEK
The US Air Force included

this shot of a US Army UH-60
Black Hawk landing during a
training event in Idaho last
November among a selection
of its best images of 2014.
Flightglobals Ascend Fleets
database records the army as
operating more than 2,150 of
the Sikorsky-built type
View more great aviation shots
online and in our weekly tablet
edition:
US Air Force
ightglobal.com/
ight-international
THE WEEK IN NUMBERS
25%
QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Last week, we asked: Can the industry continue to cut airline
accidents? You said:
Flightglobal dashboard
Amount of its capital Japans Skymark Airlines reportedly

wants to issue as new shares to boost its cash position
$50
ICIS news
38%
No, sadly,
flying can
never be
100%
safe
33%
TOTAL
VOTES:
1,397
The price of a barrel of Brent crude: a level not seen since

2009. In June 2014, Brent was trading at nearly $116
1,205
Flightglobal dashboard
The number of daily slots available at New York JFK and

Newark under tighter FAA rules proposed to lift utilisation
Yes, if it
tackles
pilot
complacency
29%
Yes,
inevitable
long-term
trend
This week, we ask: Will 2014 be high-water mark for airliner orders?
Yes, bubble will burst soon
No sign of demand slackening
Next few years will be up and down
Vote at ightglobal.com
Flightglobals premium news and data service delivers breaking air transport stories with
profiles, schedules, and fleet, financial and traffic information ightglobal.com/dashboard
6 | Flight International | 13-19 January 2015
flightglobal.com
COMMENT
Bordering on chaos
A scathing report into the use of Predator B aircraft to monitor illegal immigration in the USA
highlights a wider issue: unmanned systems are still way too complicated for many operators
ven after a nearly 15-year-old sustained burst of

energy from the unmanned aviation market,
operating an aircraft without a pilot on board is still
considerably harder than it looks.
There is no denying the progress made in the eld of
autonomous ight. Kilogramme-for-kilogramme, the
militarys most advanced unmanned air vehicles pack
far more surveillance capability into a single airframe
than their piloted counterparts. After revolutionising
the worlds of tactical aerial surveillance and battleeld
interdiction, the virtues of autonomous ight control
are expanding ever-onward, also encroaching steadily
into strategic reconnaissance and cargo delivery. And if
the rumours are true, there is also a universe of opportunity awaiting in the commercial market: pending
regulatory approval, of course.
And yet, a close look into so many UAV operations
reveals a shambolic state of affairs.
The latest report along these lines comes from an
audit of a decade-long programme by a US civilian
agency Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
The bottom-line mentality

of the commercial market is
what the UAS sector needs
Since 2004, CBPs aviation arm has amassed a
10-strong eet of General Atomics Aeronautical
Systems Predator Bs the same aircraft designated by
the US Air Force as the MQ-9 Reaper. By contrast to the
USAF Reaper operation, which spans continents, the
CBPs use is conned to two small stretches of the
southern border of the USA, the Gulf of Mexico and off
the coast of California.
Rex Features
Not as easy as it looks
Despite a more hospitable working environment at

least, compared to the tribal backroads of Pakistan and
Yemen the audit shows the CBP eet can barely stay
in the area. The 10 UAVs it owns y only 22% of the
required ight hours, with the shortfall blamed on
weather, operating restrictions and budget constraints.
The latter appears to be the strongest incentive for
keeping the Predator Bs on the ground. According to
the audit, the CBPs Predator Bs cost more than $12,000
per hour to y. That means the turboprop-powered aircraft is nearly as expensive to y as a twinjet strike
ghter like Fairchild Republics A-10.
The CBPs experience is not unique. As late as 2011,
the USAF recorded a 22% mission capability rate on
its Northrop Grumman RQ-4A Global Hawk eet, with
an audit of the operational test programme citing similar challenges as recorded in the CBP audit.
Perhaps the bottom-line driven mentality of the
commercial market is exactly what the unmanned air
system sector needs to thrive.
See This Week P11
On the wrong track?

T
David Learmount offers

his succinct views on the
complexities of aviation safety
ightglobal.com/Learmount
flightglobal.com
here is no greater irony to the aircraft tracking

debate than the fact that it has been spurred by an
event against which the technology would probably
have been ineffective.
Ten months after Malaysia Airlines ight MH370
vanished, the rst proposals for comprehensive tracking are being drawn up by ICAO for discussion.
Those trying to nd MH370 would trade a dozen
pre-impact tracking points for one reliable post-crash
transmission. Tracking at 15min intervals seems to
have the current popular vote, but that is a long time at
cruise altitude sufcient for an aircraft to sweep out a
circle of uncertainty half the size of the Java Sea, in the
context of the recent Indonesia AirAsia search.
To suggest tracking will provide instant relief to the

task of reaching and scouring the centre of the Pacic is
beyond delusion, and even if better than nothing, there
is a contradiction between safety and security.
Police ofcers will tell you to put locks on your door,
but reghters will tell you to remove them. You cant
have it both ways, so it is down to probability analysis.
In the tracking debate, the lock is an off switch. As
long as crews believe the need for such a switch to neutralise a tracking circuit outweighs the risk of its misuse
then whatever the potential merits positing tracking
as a response to deliberate interference, at least, is a
non-starter.
See This Week P9, Feature P34
THIS WEEK
BRIEFING
QATAR FIRMS UP DEAL FOR FOUR 777 FREIGHTERS
COMMITMENT Qatar Airways has finalised an order for four Boeing

777 freighters. The airline first announced plans to order the aircraft
at the Farnborough air show in July 2014. Qatar also has purchase
rights for four additional 777Fs, which will bring the total value of the
order to $2.46 billion if exercised.
ISRAEL TO BOOST AT-802 FIREFIGHTING FLEET
ORDER Elbit Systems has been awarded roughly $100 million to

purchase another six Air Tractor AT-802Fs for the Israeli air forces
firefighting squadron and run an expanded fleet of 14 aircraft for
eight years. Eight aircraft introduced following a forest fire that
claimed the lives of 45 people in December 2010 have so far flown
more than 4,600 sorties and helped to tackle over 500 blazes.
BOMBARDIER SEALS LEARJET 75 CONTRACT
SALE Bombardier has secured a deal with an undisclosed customer

for up to nine Learjet 75 superlight business jets. The contract for
six firm orders and three options is valued at around $83 million,
the company says. The Learjet 75 entered service in 2013 as a revamp of the 45XR, featuring more powerful Honeywell TFE731-40BR
engines, a Garmin G5000-based Vision flightdeck and new interior.
P&WC CASTS MAGELLAN AS SUPPLY PARTNER
PRODUCTION Pratt & Whitney Canada has agreed a 10-year pact

with Magellan Aerospace, covering the latters supply of magnesium
and aluminium castings for current engines and its new PW1100G
geared turbofan. The latter is an option for the Airbus A320neo, with
variants to power the Bombardier CSeries and Mitsubishi MRJ.
Magellan says the agreement should generate total revenues worth
around C$250 million ($211 million).
Enjoy more of David Learmounts latest

insights into the world of airline safety at
ightglobal.com/learmount
STATISTICS DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON
Fall in crash count

made 2014 safest
Lower fatal accident rate last year made it a record-breaking
one in aviation, but major incidents pushed up casualty total
he 2014 calendar year was the

best ever for airline safety, according to Ascend, a Flightglobal
advisory service.
Ascends director of air safety
and insurance, Paul Hayes, says
the global airline fatal accident
rate in 2014 was one per every
2.38 million ights, narrowly
making it the safest year ever.
The previous best had been
2012, when a fatal accident rate
of one per every 2.37 million
ights was recorded.
The latest gures exclude the
17 July 2014 loss of Malaysia Airlines ight MH17, on the grounds
that the Boeing 777-200ER was
shot down by a missile and is categorised by Ascend as having
been a war risk loss, rather than
an accident. However, although

doubts exist about the status of
the carriers missing ight
MH370, that incident has been included in the fatal accident rate.
Flight Internationals annual
review of global airline safety
shows that there there were 19
fatal accidents in 2014 also the
lowest ever gure and a combined 671 fatalities. This compares with 2013, during which 26
fatal accidents occurred and a record low of 281 fatalities was recorded, at a rate of one per every
1.91 million ights.
The average fatal accident rate
for the last ve years was around
one death per every 1.75 million
ights.
See Feature P22
REQUIREMENT Polands defence ministry plans to buy two longrange VIP transports, each capable of carrying a maximum of 12 to
14 passengers. To be crewed by air force pilots, the new aircraft will
complement a pair of Embraer 175LRs chartered from LOT Polish
Airlines since January 2014. Warsaw has been seeking a modern
VIP capability since an April 2010 Tupolev Tu-154 crash which killed
96 people, including President Lech Kaczynski.
GEAR COLLAPSES AS SAAB 340 VEERS OFF RUNWAY
ACCIDENT UK investigators are looking into a gear-collapse incident

involving a Loganair Saab 340 operating for Flybe. The 2 January
incident took place at Stornoway airport in the Outer Hebrides in
Scotland. At 08:33 the aircraft veered off the runway, says the airports operator. Images from the scene show the turboprop in rough
grass with its nose-gear apparently having failed. Two of the 28 people on board the aircraft suffered minor injuries.
HISPANO-SUIZA PLANS POLISH PRODUCTION PLANT
INVESTMENT Safrans Hispano-Suiza division is investing in a new

Polish plant to produce components for engines including the CFM
International Leap. The Leap will power the Boeing 737 Max and
Airbus A320neo, as well as Comacs C919. The plant will be located
in the southeast where local subsidiary Hispano-Suiza Polska has
a facility and employ 100 personnel. It will have two production
lines, building low-pressure turbine blades for CFM partner Snecma
as well as compressor spools for Techspace Aero.
Felipe Christ/Helibras
WARSAW SEEKS NEW VIP TRANSPORT PAIR
The modified AS550 Fennec has received a new glass cockpit

ROTORCRAFT DOMINIC PERRY LONDON ARIE EGOZI TEL AVIV
Helibras delivers armys upgrades
irbus Helicopters Brazilian

subsidiary Helibras has delivered the rst four of 36 AS350
Squirrel and AS550 Fennec rotorcraft modernised for the nations
army at its Itajub site.
Modications to the light singleengined types included the integration of a glass cockpit with new
communication and navigation
equipment, plus additional ballistic protection. Where possible, the
upgrades were developed by Helibras, or delivered by other Brazilian companies, including AEL
Sistemas, Sagem Defesa Aeronutica and Becker Avionics do Brasil.
Separately, Elbit Systems of

America has been awarded a
$106 million subcontract from
Marsh Aviation to upgrade four
stored Grumman C-1As for Brazils navy.
To be conducted at subsidiary
M7 Aerospaces San Antonio,
Texas facility over a ve-year period, the work will replace the
types engines, avionics and communications equipment and add
an air-to-air refuelling capability.
The re-designated KC-2s will be
dedicated to carrier onboard delivery and tanker duties from the
aircraft carrier So Paulo.
flightglobal.com
THIS WEEK
HeliVert partners
plan to assemble
AW189 in Russia
THIS WEEK P10
CRASH AARON CHONG & GREG WALDRON SINGAPORE
Tail location offers QZ8501 data hope

Group chief Tony Fernandes defends AirAsia schedule as search teams discover A320 parts that may contain black box
nvestigators are moving closer
to determining what caused the
crash of Indonesia AirAsia ight
QZ8501, having located the Airbus A320s tail section and some
fuselage sections.
Located by Indonesias national search and rescue agency Basarnas, the tail section is where
the aircrafts cockpit voice recorder and ight data recorder
are installed.
If [it is the] right part of [the] tail
section, then the black box should
be there, AirAsia group chief
Tony Fernandes said following the
discovery. Search teams had until
that point been unable to detect
any pings from either recorder, and
their location by divers at a 30m
depth was being hindered by extremely poor visibility.
By 8 January, search teams had

recovered 44 bodies from the aircraft, which crashed into the Java
Sea in bad weather on 28 December while carrying 155 passengers and seven crew.
Jakartas transport ministry on
2 January suspended Indonesia
AirAsias operation of the Surabaya-Singapore route, saying the
carrier had violated operational
procedures by ying without permission on a Sunday.
Fernandes defended his airline, saying it had the rights to y
the route seven days a week. We
have secured slots as well as approval from both Indonesia and
Singapore. What happened was
purely an administration error,
he says, while welcoming the
transport ministrys evaluation of
Rex Features
Wreckage from the crashed Airbus continues to be recovered

coordination between the slot coordinator and airports.
The process has become clear
now, he says. I also recom-
mend what is being implemented

in Singapore; an integrated computerised system so that everyone is on the same page.
SAFETY DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
Routine aircraft tracking moves closer to realisation

CAO is set to propose the implementation of short-term
measures for routine aircraft
tracking, following recommendations for 15min position updates
put forward by an IATA task force
last November.
The task forces efforts have
been highlighted by ICAO in a
paper prepared for a high-level
safety conference to be held in
Montreal next month. Participants
will be invited to note the teams
conclusions and recommend that
the organisation promote and facilitate routine aircraft tracking
as a matter of priority, the document states. The proposal represents an important rst step to
laying a foundation for aircraft
tracking development, it adds.
ICAO will also present its concept of operations document for a
Global Aeronautical Distress and
Safety System, identifying multiple weaknesses in current tracking, alerting and search-and-rescue capabilities.
Technology such as contracted
automatic dependent surveil-
flightglobal.com
lance (ADS-C) could provide a

near-term tracking path, although
not all air navigation providers
offer the service. Air France ight
AF447, lost over the South Atlantic in June 2009, had 15min
ADS-C capability but owing to
ight-plan format errors was
unable to log-on to the oceanic air
trafc control system operated at
Senegals Dakar centre.
While 15min position updates
would be regular, they would still
potentially leave a large region of
Rex Features
A task force has recommended

routine 15min position updates
uncertainty over a possible crash

location. At a typical cruise speed
of 470kt (870km/h), an aircraft
would travel over 100nm
(185km) in the interval.
Some carriers have modied
the ACARS addressing system to
provide 10min position updates,
along with trigger notication of
unplanned ight-prole deviations. Analysis of a position report and maintenance messages
sent using this method helped to
narrow the search area for
AF447, but still left a circle with a
40nm radius.
Automatic position broadcast,
through ADS-B, has long been
available as a tracking mechanism, but relies on ground stations
to receive transmissions. Spacebased infrastructure will enable
such data to be relayed from oceanic and remote regions using 66
Iridium satellites, ICAO notes.
Although the fee structure for
the service has not been nalised, it is foreseen that it will be
provided at a signicantly lower
cost than would be required to
expand or install and maintain a

ground-based surveillance infrastructure, says a presentation
prepared by Canadian-led partnership Aireon. This expects to
have space-based ADS-B capability available from 2017, and
has offered to provide aircraft
tracking data to rescue organisations free of charge in the event
of an emergency.
However, while ICAO and
IATA are promoting the development of ight-tracking capabilities, the issue of deliberate de-activation suspected in the
unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines ight MH370 remains unresolved.
From a safety perspective, all
electrical components on board
an aircraft must have the ability
to have their power source interrupted in the event of an electrical system malfunction or re,
IATAs task force says. While
these types of operational and
safety-related events are rare, the
fact remains that equipment on
board aircraft can be disabled.
THIS WEEK
For more in-depth coverage of the

global rotorcraft sector, go online to
ightglobal.com/helicopters
ROTORCRAFT DOMINIC PERRY LONDON
HeliVert partners
plan to assemble
AW189 in Russia
AgustaWestland and Russian Helicopters extend their joint
venture to include production of 8.3t super-medium twin
gustaWestland has broadened the scope of its Moscow-based HeliVert joint venture
to include assembly of its new
AW189 super-medium twin.
The move clears the way for a
big sales boost for the 8.3t type,
with Russian oil giant Rosneft
lined up to potentially acquire up
to 160 locally-built examples.
The development of
offshore projects is
a strategic objective
of Rosneft
IGOR SECHIN
Chief executive, Rosneft
HeliVert, in which Russian

Helicopters also holds a 50%
stake, was set up in 2012 to assemble the AW139 intermediate
twin, manufacturing up to 20 per
year for the local market. The
new strategic partnership,
signed on 31 December 2014 by

parent companies Finmeccanica
and Rostec, will see the rst two
AW189s delivered from the
Tomilino facility near Moscow to
Rosneft in mid-2015, Rostec says.
Successful operation of the
helicopters could see the oil company order an additional eight in
the autumn of 2015, it adds, with
the potential size of its commitment to rise to 160 by 2025.
HeliVert also will have an exclusive licence to sell and manufacture the AW139 and AW189
for Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States,
and to provide after-sales support
and training for the types.
The development of offshore
projects is a strategic objective of
Rosneft, says chief executive Igor
Sechin. The implementation of
this task is impossible without
modern Arctic and marine engineering [and] oil and gas platforms, and modern aircraft.
AgustaWestland
UK operations with Bristow Helicopters should start in April

APPROVAL
SAR variant gains delayed certication

Bristow Helicopters hopes to receive
AgustaWestlands first UK-built
AW189 configured for search and
rescue (SAR) operations later this
month, following certification of the
variant in late December.
One Italian-completed AW189
arrived at Bristows Norwich facility
in Norfolk in November, but all future
SAR-configured examples will be
assembled at AgustaWestlands
Yeovil factory in Somerset. Bristow
expects the first of these to be delivered later this month, with the ro-
torcraft to be used on its contract

with the UK government to progressively take over SAR activities from
the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.
Delays to certification of the 8.6t
SAR variant and slow progress in
establishing the production line at
Yeovil have prompted Bristow to
develop contingency plans, including
the acquisition of a pair of smaller
AW139s. The first base due to
operate AW189s at Inverness in
Scotland is scheduled to go live on
1 April.
SPACEFLIGHT DAN THISDELL LONDON
GAO ends Dream Chaser pursuit of NASA contract

T
the agencys plan to replace the

Space Shuttles astronaut transport capability with spacecraft
provided by the private sector.
SNC had appealed against a
NASA
he US Government Accountability Ofce (GAO) has put

an end to a Sierra Nevada (SNC)
dream of providing NASA with a
lifting body spaceplane as part of
The reusable spaceplane concept lost out to Boeing and SpaceX

September 2014 choice of proposals by Boeing and SpaceX

over its Dream Chaser to receive
development funding under the
Commercial Crew Transportation Capability contract. Denying its appeal on 5 January, the
GAO supported NASAs conclusion that the Boeing CST-100
and SpaceX Dragon capsules
offer better value.
All three reusable systems have
been designed to carry up to seven
astronauts, with crewed ights
from US soil to the International
Space Station planned to commence in 2017. The USA has had
no capability to y astronauts
since the 2011 retirement of its

Space Shuttle eet, and has since
bought rides to the ISS from Russia, aboard Soyuz rockets from
Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
Just days after NASAs
decision last September, SNC unveiled a concept realised with air
launched systems developer Stratolauncher for a smaller, threeperson version of its spaceplane.
Under a 2014 agreement with the
European Space Agency and Germanys DLR aerospace centre, the
parties also will explore ways to
exploit Dream Chaser or its variants beyond the original goal of
supporting the ISS.
flightglobal.com
THIS WEEK
FAA to mandate
SMS for all airlines
AIR TRANSPORT P12
UNMANNED SYSTEMS STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC
CBP Predator B eet takes heavy ak

US border agency comes under intense criticism over failings in use of unmanned aircraft to monitor illegal immigration
he US Customs and Border
Protection (CBP) agency no
longer plans to acquire 14 more
medium altitude unmanned air
vehicles, and faces stinging new
criticism about the effectiveness of
its current eet of 10 such aircraft.
Comprised of unarmed land
and maritime surveillance versions of the General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems Predator
B, the agencys eet is so restricted by budget, operational and
weather constraints that the
aircraft have completed only
22% of planned ight hours, a
report by the Ofce of Inspector
General (IG) says.
Moreover, an $8 million sensor
the Northrop Grumman vehicle
and dismount exploitation radar
(VADER) is not being used properly, the report says. Although
VADER has detected thousands of
suspected illegal immigrants after
they have crossed the US border,
it is not being used by the CBP for
the strategic purpose of tracing
their routes back to where they
entered the country.
The IG has consequently recommended that the CBP invest
Rex Features
The medium-altitude surveillance aircraft were found to have completed 22% of planned flight hours
$443 million on something more
useful than expanding its UAV
eet to 24 aircraft.
CBP has invested signicant
funds in a programme that has
not achieved the expected results, and it cannot demonstrate
how much the programme has
improved border security, the
report says.
It adds that the agency has stated it no longer intends to expand
the Predator B eet, although an
approved requirement for the additional aircraft still exits.
The IG report also catalogues a

list of details about the CBPs
UAV operations along the southern land and maritime borders of
the USA. Although the CBP estimates it costs only about $2,500
per ight hour to operate the
Predator B, the IG report says the
actual cost is nearly six times
higher after factoring in salaries
for pilots and maintainers, depreciation and the cost of maintaining the VADER sensor.
The agencys Predator B eet
also faces weather-related restric-
tions, as the type cannot be operated in storms or where there is

cloud cover, the report says.
The CBP partly justied the expense of standing up the Predator
B eet estimated by the IG at
$360 million by promising cost
savings, as the aircraft could be
used to respond to ground motion
alerts along the border instead of
other aircraft or patrol ofcers.
However, the IG found only six
instances where a UAV had been
used to respond to a ground
motion alert.
UNMANNED SYSTEMS BETH STEVENSON LONDON
Rapid rise predicted for commercial UAV market

arket analysts are predicting that the value of the
small unmanned air vehicle market will surpass $8.4 billion by
2019, with commercial use of the
technology to dominate business.
In a 5 January report, ABI
Research claims that revenues for
the commercial use of small
unmanned air systems (SUAS)
will be in excess of $5.1 billion by
2019, representing a compound
annual growth rate of some 51%
from 2014.
By the end of its study period,
the commercial market is expected to be 2.3 times larger than the
military sector and ve times
larger than the hobbyist market,
the company says.
flightglobal.com
Rex Features
Industrial use will drive sales

The commercial sector is the
sweet spot for SUAS use, says
Dan Kara, practice director at ABI
Research, referring to a current
focus on this area of the market
by both defence contractors and
hobbyist manufacturers.
Both groups of SUAS makers,

along with other classes of solution providers, are aggressively
targeting the commercial sector
through acquisitions, internal development, partnerships and investment, he says.
Industry applications for the
technology, along with data,
operator and modelling services
will be the main driver for SUAS
in this market, ABI believes, and
not necessarily just the unmanned platforms themselves.
Ongoing research advancements, technological developments and dropping prices for increasingly capable enabling
technologies have combined to
remove barriers to innovation and
commercialisation, spur the development of new SUAS and increase the ways they can be applied, the company says.
ABI considers types with a
maximum take-off weight of less
than 11kg (25lb) to be SUAS, including xed-wing and single-/
multi-rotor vertical take-off and
landing platforms. Designs intended for professional and personal use were considered in its
study, but others, such as systems
costing less than $350, plus
functionally limited and lowtech models produced for the toy
industry were excluded.
For more coverage of the
unmanned air sector visit
ightglobal.com/UAV
AIR TRANSPORT
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ightglobal.com/dashboard
RETIREMENT FIRDAUS HASHIM SINGAPORE
Eva Air bids farewell to its final 747-400 Combi
AirTeamImages
B-16409 will be sold, disassembled and harvested for parts
aiwanese carrier Eva Air has

retired its last Boeing 747-400
Combi.
The types nal service was operated by B-16409 on the Hong
Kong-Taipei Taoyuan route, the
Star Alliance member says.
Besides operating passenger
and cargo services, the aircraft,
which has an extended cargo section, has also performed diplomatic missions for the island nations presidents.
The aircraft will be sold, disassembled and harvested for parts.

database shows Eva Air took delivery of its rst 747-400 Combi
in May 1993, and had operated
10 in total. All of Evas Combi aircraft had a lower passenger seat
count than a typical 747-400,
with 276 seats.
Asiana Airlines, Kuwait Airways and KLM also operate the
747-400 Combi.
REGULATION JON HEMMERDINGER WASHINGTON DC
FAA to mandate SMS for all airlines
new
Federal
Aviation
Administration rule will require US scheduled airlines to develop organisation-wide safety
management systems (SMS) programmes by 2018.
The rule, announced by the administration on 7 January, is an
effort by the FAA to ensure airlines can identify and mitigate
potential risks.
SMS are detailed, companywide programmes that dene
processes for examining operational data, isolating dangerous
trends and mitigating risks.
The rule will take effect in
early March. US-based carriers
will then have six months to submit an SMS implementation plan
to the FAA. The carriers will
need to develop and implement
their nal SMS by 2018.
SMS enable airlines to detect
patterns in their data, which are
basically the early warning signs
of an accident, says Anthony
Foxx, secretary of the Department
of Transportation. We must be
smarter about how airlines analyse and benet from the data
they collect every day.
Foxx adds that SMS should
help the industry reach the DoTs
goal of cutting aviations fatality
risk by 50% by 2025.
FAA administrator Michael
Huerta says the rule will help
airlines establish safety-focused

cultures and assist carriers and
regulators with identifying potentially dangerous trends.
The rule follows a review by
the FAA of 100 airline accidents
between 2001 and 2010, Huerta
says. We determined that if SMS
had been in place, they may have
prevented many of these accidents, he adds.
The rule requires airline SMS
to include four components: a
safety policy that denes safety
objectives, risk management processes that help carriers analyse
safety and identify hazards, an assurance plan to monitor safety
performance and a safety promotion component aimed at helping
carriers train employees and
communicate safety information.
Carriers must also designate an
executive responsible for overseeing SMS.
The FAA estimates that the
rule will cost airlines $224 million over 10 years. The nancial
benets are calculated to be
$205-472 million.
US airlines have been piloting
SMS for several years, says Nick
Calio, chief executive of trade
group Airlines for America. Calio
adds that all his groups airline
members have voluntary SMStype programmes, or have helped
develop SMS standards.
Rex Features
US scheduled carriers obliged to develop company-wide programmes by 2018, in order to identify and mitigate risks
Many domestic carriers have been running pilot SMS for years
STRATEGY MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE
China to invest in navigation technology

The Civil Aviation Administration of
China (CAAC) has pledged to increase its investment in new technologies to further improve
aerospace navigation and enhance
flight safety.
CAAC says that by end of the year,
10% of all Chinese airlines fleets
will have head-up displays installed.
Shanghais Pudong International
airport will also test out a groundbased augmentation landing system
in the first quarter, and subsequently
put it into operation.
A ground-based augmentation
system boosts GPS signals for air-
craft flying near airports, improving

the accuracy and integrity of location
co-ordinates.
The administration has also
pledged to design and implement
performance-based navigation at all
transport airports across the country by the end of 2016.
By 2017 it will also roll out the
countrys first automatic dependence surveillance broadcast
ground stations.
China says it will have 230 airports for passenger and cargo transport at the end of 2015, up from
182 in 2011.
flightglobal.com
AIR TRANSPORT
Troubled Transaero
looks at deferrals
AIR TRANSPORT P14
FLEET
AARON CHONG SINGAPORE
ORDERS AND DELIVERIES STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC
Boeing boosts its backlog
Jet Airways ad
fuels SpiceJet
Q400 rumours
Airframer notches up double the number of net orders in 2014 it had predicted in January
oeing closed the books on

2014 with a total of 1,432
new rm orders added to a record
backlog about twice what executives had forecast last January.
In the face of erce competition, we had a strong year, says
Ray Conner, president and chief
executive of Boeing Commercial
Airplanes. Last January, Boeing
executives forecast a book-to-bill
ratio of about 1:1, with orders to
roughly match deliveries of 723
aircraft in 2014.
Airbus plans to release 2014
order totals this week, but
reported 1,031 net orders from
January to November. Sources
close to the airframer indicated
last week that Airbus secured
more orders than its rival in 2014.
The vast majority of Boeings
bookings came from the singleaisle market. The current models
and the future, re-engined 737
Max variant combined to amass
1,104 net orders in 2014.
On the other side, the 747-8
programme ended 2014 with no
new rm orders added and a
backlog of 36 aircraft. Although
Boeing added two orders in 2014,
customers cancelled deals for
two 747-8s as well.
The current and re-engined
777 programmes, meanwhile,
added 283 new orders with no
cancellations, raising the backlog
to 564 aircraft. On the 787 programme, the company added 65
gross orders, but cancellations re-
The company increased the rate of its 737 production line

duced the net order tally to 41.
The backlog at the end of 2014
stood at 843 aircraft.
The 767 programme added
four new orders in 2014, raising
the backlog to 47.
Boeing also set a new commercial aircraft delivery record in
2014 by shipping 723 aircraft
overall, including 114 787s.
The year-end total beat the
companys modern era record set
in 2013 of 648 aircraft deliveries,
including 65 787s. It is likely to
heavily beat Airbuss output in
2014, as the European manufacturer has forecast a similar number of deliveries in 2014 as the
previous years total of 626.
It also easily exceeds the
previous record set in 1968 for
combined deliveries of Boeingand Douglas-built aircraft. The

two aircraft companies, which
merged in the 1990s, delivered
680 aircraft that year.
Boeing doubled monthly 787
output to 10 per month last January and increased the rate on the
737 line by about 10% to 42 last
April. The nal delivery total fell
near the high end of Boeings
guidance of between 715 and 725
aircraft deliveries in 2014.
The production record was set
with help from a push on the
787 in the fourth quarter. Boeing
delivered 35 of the twin-aisle
aircraft in the last three months
of 2014, or ve more than the
monthly production rate would
suggest.
ndian airline Jet Airways has

created something of a stir in
the industry by posting a recruitment ad seeking pilots for the
Bombardier Q400, an aircraft
type it does not operate and for
which it has no orders.
Local media have speculated
that Jet could acquire the Q400
eet of beleaguered rival
SpiceJet; the only carrier in the
country now using the type.
database shows that SpiceJet has
15 of the type, all leased.
When
contacted
by
Flightglobal, a Jet spokeswoman
did not say outright that the
airline will obtain Q400s, but
her reply was tantalising: At Jet
Airways we continually look at
enhancing our talent pool for all
categories of employment,
including cockpit crew as per
the companys requirement, she
said. This also includes [the]
Q400 category.
Ascend shows that Jet Airways operates 18 leased ATR
72s. Seven examples have lease
terms expiring soon.
Bombardier
Boeing
All 15 of the type are leased
PROGRAMME MAVIS TOH SINGAPORE
First ARJ21-700 delivery awaits CAAC validation
Oliver Santa
Chengdu has 30 jets on order

flightglobal.com
hinese airframer Comac has

yet to rm a date for the delivery of its rst ARJ21-700 to launch
customer Chengdu Airlines.
Comac says the Civil Aviation
Administration of China (CAAC)
is conducting an airworthiness inspection on the regional jet. It is
also reviewing Comacs operational support system and will have to
grant it a production licence.
Only after these validations

can the rst ARJ21 be delivered
sometime in 2015, says Comac.
It adds that aircraft 105 to 109
are scheduled for Chengdu
Airlines. Aircraft 105 and 106
have taken their rst ights,
while aircraft 107 is undergoing
nal assembly. Parts assembly is
meanwhile ongoing for aircraft
108 and 109.
CAAC issued type certication for the indigenous regional

jet on 30 December 2014,
marking a major milestone for
China in its foray into the
commercial aircraft manufacturing sector. The certication came
more than 12 years after the
programme was launched.
Chengdu Airlines has 30
ARJ21s on order.
AIR TRANSPORT
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ORDERS DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW & MICHAEL GUBISCH LONDON
Troubled Transaero looks at deferrals

Moscow-based airline to re-examine its fleet plan and capacity as its Irish MRO subsidiary enters bankruptcy protection
DEVELOPMENT
DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
Wing-box for
MC-21 enters
testing phase
ussian researchers have

commenced testing on the
initial wing-box for Irkuts
MC-21-300 twinjet.
The work is being carried out
by Moscows Central Aerohydrodynamics Institute.
It says that the tests will
comprise three phases. The rst
will examine the operational
strength of the structure by
simulating real ight conditions.
The structure will then be
transferred to a facility in
Turayevo which will carry out
simulations to assess the effect of
bird strikes.
It will be returned to the institute for the third phase, involving
testing of residual strength.
Irkut expects to begin test
ights of the MC-21 set to be
redesignated as the Yak-242 in
the rst half of 2016.
The airline has received assistance from the Russian government

The airline, which was predicting passenger numbers to rise
by nearly 5% to 13.1 million for
the full year 2014, has also secured nancial assistance from
the Russian government.
Meanwhile,
Irish-based
maintenance provider Transaero
Engineering Ireland (TEI) has entered bankruptcy protection as a

result of its Russian parent carriers nancial difculties.
Irelands High Court has appointed Michael McAteer of Grant
Thornton as interim examiner
to develop a restructuring plan,
after the MRO specialist made a

request for protection on 5 January. It continues to trade normally.
Moscow-based
Transaero
Airlines cannot pay TEI moneys
due for services rendered [or] support TEI on an ongoing basis, the
MRO provider says.
The airline is beset by what
TEI terms serious nancial difculties arising from US and EU
trade sanctions against Russia, as
well as declines in the roubles
value and the price of oil. Initial contact has been made with
a potential nancier to put the
company onto a solid footing,
the subsidiary says.
TEI employs a staff of around
230 people and specialises in airframe maintenance for 737s, 757s
and 767s. Formerly named Air
Atlanta Aero Engineering, it was
acquired by Transaero in 2012.
SAFETY DAVID KAMINSKI-MORROW LONDON
Sudan appeals to ICAO over sanctions

S
udanese ofcials are to declare a formal objection to

political sanctions at an upcoming ICAO safety conference,
claiming that they have a detrimental effect on aviation safety.
The country has been subject
to US government sanctions
since 1997, which have impacted
ag-carrier Sudan Airways.
Sudan is also covered by a
blanket airline blacklisting by the
European Commission.
In a presentation prepared for
the ICAO high-level safety conference in February, the Sudanese
delegation argues that imposing
sanctions on aviation-related
equipment constitutes a signicant risk to air navigation operations a sector which, it says, is
not the primary target.
The negative impact of sanctions to the safety and well-being
of aviation activities throughout
the world outweighs whatever
objectives the sanctions are expected to achieve, it adds.
Resolutions passed under the

ICAO umbrella, it says, have not
borne positive results and the
risk to international aircraft operations remains uninhibited.
Manufacture of aircraft and air
trafc control systems is a multinational process, it says, and the
Sudanese delegation is to recommend that the ICAO Council
pursues measures to convince
countries imposing sanctions to
make necessary exceptions.
Meanwhile, European authorities have issued warnings about
security in South Sudan airspace
as a result of armed conict in the
newly-independent state. Clashes between government and rebel

forces are posing a risk to ight
operations, notably from rocketpropelled grenades and shoulderlaunched missiles, says EASA.
In a safety bulletin it is recommending that all aircraft operators exercise extreme caution if
planning to y into, or over, the
region.
Its advisory is one of several
recently issued to highlight the
potential risk of overying regions of conict, also including
Afghanistan, Libya, Mali, the
Sinai Peninsula and Syria.
AirTeamImages
ussian carrier Transaero is

looking at a possible deferral
of planned aircraft deliveries as
part of a series of measures to
balance capacity.
The airline states it is considering the issue of postponing
some of the delivery terms of
jets due to arrive in 2015. It has
not indicated which specic
types are being examined, but it
had been intending to take aircraft including its rst Airbus
A380s, as well as A321s and
Sukhoi Superjets, this year.
They are part of a broad eetrenewal programme which also
includes acquisitions of Boeing
747-8s and A320neos.
Transaero says it will undertake
measures to optimise its passenger capacity over the rst three
months of 2015, which it says is
excessive for the low season.
Rex Features
US and European supply restrictions have affected Sudan Airways

flightglobal.com
NEWS FOCUS
Lavi unit heads for

operational debut
DEFENCE P16
APPOINTMENT GREG WALDRON SINGAPORE
Mending a broken airline

With a damaged image, weak finances and structural problems, MAS is in deep trouble. Can Christoph Mueller save it?
flightglobal.com
Mueller said Aer Lingus was like a patient in an emergency room

Both rivals have better cost
structures, and no qualms about
competing on price.
On the international front
MAS is pitted against fast-growing, long-haul, low-cost player
AirAsia X, which benets from
tight connectivity with AirAsia. It
also must contend with the three
super connector Gulf carriers,
and regional players Singapore
Airlines and Thai Airways.
The expert consensus is that
Mueller is the best man for the
job, but some question whether
even his acumen and leadership
skills will be up to the task.
MAS has long had an extremely close relationship with
the Malaysian government and
political interests. Throughout
its history, it has been regarded
as an important player in promoting Malaysia, both at home
and aboard. Like other legacy
carriers, it has struggled for profitability, if not outright relevance, in an era characterised by
deregulated markets and nimble,
aggressive low-cost rivals.
The key to making these

changes happen, and turning
MAS around, is getting stakeholders on-side and getting real
political backing, says one observer familiar with the carrier.
Its all-too-easy for a politician
to say downsize the airline.
He says the environment facing MAS today is far more competitive than when former chief
executive Idris Jala turned the
carrier around a decade ago, because at that time AirAsia hardly
existed. Southeast Asias other
big turnaround in recent years,
Garuda Indonesia, occurred
when Lion Air was still a cub.
OBSOLESCENCE
Mueller also has to contend with
several structural issues. Foremost among these are long-haul
routes where the carrier has
boosted load factors at the
expense of yields. More urgently,
he must address obsolescence issues with the carriers 13 Boeing
777-200ERs, which are on average 20 years old. MASs six Airbus A380s are the agships of the
eet, but many observers feel the
superjumbos are simply too large
for such a carrier to ll protably.
Joanna Lu, head of advisory at
Ascend Flightglobal consultancy
in Asia, feels Muellers key
challenge will be overhauling
the MAS management culture.
Muellers challenge is changing the overall work culture in
this airline, helping it know
more about the market and their
competitors, and making the
MAS team more disciplined,
she says. He has to re-brand the
company and convince the
world this is a totally new and
professional airline.
Airbus
DISAPPEARANCE
Salient elements of the plan include cutting the workforce by
30% from 20,000 staff in August
(a process already underway),
moving the companys headquarters, and focusing more on regional routes. Protability is to be
achieved within three years no
small feat given that MASs third
quarter results, released on 28
November, revealed net losses
had widened to some 576 million
ringgit ($163 million).
MASs 2014 results were
weighed down by the disappearance of MH370 in March and
shooting down of MH17 over
Ukraine in July, resulting in the
loss of 537 lives.
All of the changes need to
happen in a cut-throat market.
On domestic and regional routes,
MAS faces its traditional nemesis AirAsia and (to a lesser degree) Lion Airs Malindo unit.
John Strickland of JLS

Consulting is cautiously optimistic. Its a difcult job, but
not impossible, he says.
He notes: Mueller has a good
track record. He took Aer Lingus
from having a primarily low-cost
focus to having a business traveller emphasis, at a time when Europe was suffering the effects of an
economic crisis with a strong lowcost rival in the form of Ryanair.
BillyPix
hristoph
Mueller
will
assume the toughest job in
the airline business when he
takes over as chief executive of
Malaysia Airlines (MAS) later
this year. Taking the reins of a
troubled carrier is familiar territory for the German, who engineered the turnaround of Irelands
Aer Lingus. In a 2011 Airline
Business interview, he said that
when he took charge of the ag
carrier in 2009, it resembled a patient in an emergency room,
haemorrhaging cash. He may well
feel a sense of dj vu when he formally steps into the MAS role.
Mueller will not have to
contend with public shareholders
and analysts following MASs delisting on the last day of 2014, but
this is arguably the only problem
not on his plate. Even before his
appointment in December, his
mission was clear, after sovereign
wealth fund Khazanah Nasional
outlined its 12-point restructuring
plan for MAS in August 2014.
Some feel that the six A380s MAS operates are too large to be protable
DEFENCE
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ightglobal.com/defencenewsletter
FLEETS ARIE EGOZI HAZERIM AIR BASE
Lavi unit heads for operational debut

Israeli air force lauds Alenia Aermacchi type as offering revolution in capability, as instructors get ready for first cadets
n Israeli air force squadron
equipped
with
Alenia
Aermacchi M-346 Lavi advanced jet trainers is close to
being declared operational, having already received nine aircraft
from an eventual 30-strong eet.
Israels rst M-346 landed at
Hazerim air base last July, and
deliveries are continuing on
schedule. A replacement for aged
Douglas A-4 Skyhawks, the Lavi
represents a revolution in training, says an air force Lockheed
Martin F-16I pilot identied
only as Maj E who is part of
the initial team of instructors.
Testing of the M-346 by pilots
from the air forces ight test unit
is continuing at Hazerim, in an
effort to prepare the type for use
with the rst student pilots and
weapon system ofcers (WSO).
Meanwhile, a new simulator
centre bustles with activity, with
instructors preparing lessons for
the rst cadets. Developed by
Elbit Systems, together with Ale-
Arie Egozi
The M-346 makes use of embedded virtual simulation technology

nia Aermacchi, CAE and Selex,
the ground-based training system
(GBTS) facility houses two full
mission simulators and two operational ight simulators, all of
which can be linked together.
Pilots and WSOs will receive
training ranging from basic aircraft familiarisation to the highest
level of combat ight competence. A high percentage of the
syllabus will be practised using
the GBTS, which trainees will
visit on a daily basis.
Until now we demanded the

cadets to perform 120 air missions as part of the training. From
now on, they will be required to
do only 100. The rest will be
done in this very advanced
facility, says Maj E.
The air force selected this
method so that its new ight
crews will be qualied to progress directly to types like the
F-16, Boeing F-15 and Lockheed
F-35 Lightning II after completing
their instruction. By contrast, a
new pilot reaching a ghting

squadron after ying the Skyhawk
had to begin operational training
almost from scratch. The squadron hated that, as they consider it
a waste of time and resources,
the instructor says. This is completely changed now.
Maj E says the most signicant
advantage of the Lavi is its use of
an embedded virtual simulation
system, which was developed by
Elbit and integrated by Alenia
Aermacchi. This turns the Lavi
into a combat aircraft laden with
systems it actually does not carry,
like radar, missiles and electronic
warfare systems, he says.
He also praises its safety features, including an upset recovery button. When the pilot feels
the rst sign of vertigo he pushes
that button and the aircraft is kept
straight and level until the pilot
has recovered, he notes.
Visit Arie Egozis blog for more
about Israeli defence topics:
ightglobal.com/ariel-view
DEVELOPMENT
Russia sees the

light with Il-112V
ussias Ilyushin design bureau
is to proceed with development work on the Il-112V light
transport for the nations military.
Ilyushins parent company
United Aircraft says it has signed a
contract with the defence ministry
covering the construction of two
prototypes of the design, which
will have a 6.5t payload capacity.
The high-wing Il-112V a
competitor to the Antonov
An-140 was one of the focus
programmes outlined in a recent
strategic consolidation involving
Ilyushin. First ight of the new
model is scheduled for 2016.
Ilyushin says it expects to sign a
further contract with the defence
ministry that year, and for series
production aircraft to emerge from
the VASO manufacturing facility
in Voronezh from 2018.
US Air Force
Baghdads lead pair of the type have moved to Tucson

TRANSFER CRAIG HOYLE LONDON
Iraqi pilots begin F-16 training in USA

P
ilots from the Iraqi air force

have started training on the
services rst two Lockheed
Martin F-16Ds, following a US
government decision to transfer
the aircraft to an Air National
Guard base at Tucson International airport in Arizona.
Relocated from Lockheeds
Fort Worth site in Texas last
month, the rst two production

examples had been formally delivered to Iraqi ownership at the
company facility last June.
Iraq has ordered 24 single-seat
F-16Cs in the Block 52 production standard, plus 12 D-model
trainers.
Washingtons decision in 2014
to block the transfer of the aircraft
outside of the USA prompted

Baghdad to acquire nine secondhand Sukhoi Su-25 ground-attack aircraft via Russia, as an interim means of engaging Islamic
State militants.
Six more F-16s are scheduled
to be delivered [to Tucson] over
the next ve months, the USAF
said on 18 December.
flightglobal.com
DEFENCE
F-35 chiefs return

fire on baseless
cannon reporting
DEFENCE P18
FLEETS DOMINIC PERRY LONDON
Upgraded Russian strategic bombers back on duty

ussias air force has received
its rst upgraded Tu-95MS
and Tu-160M strategic bombers,
following modernisation work
performed by airframe manufacturer Tupolev.
An unspecied number of upgraded Tu-95MS were returned to
operational use before the end of
2014. The turboprop-powered
type received ehancements to its
electronic warfare and targeting
systems, Tupolev says. According
to the company, a further 20 examples are to be modernised to
this conguration by 2016.
Improvements made to the
supersonic Tu-160 included the
Tupolev
A second phase of Tu-160 modernisation work is set for 2016

partial replacement of its avionics and weapons systems. Delivery of the rst modied aircraft
followed a debut ight in the
standard in mid-November 2014.
A second phase of modernisation work for the variablegeometry type is scheduled to

begin in 2016, and will include
the integration of uprated
Kuznetsov NK-32 engines, according to a report by Russian

news agency Itar-Tass.
Flightglobals MiliCAS database records the Russian air
force as having current in-service eets of 58 Tu-95s and 12
Tu-160s, as well as 107 shorterrange Tu-22Ms.
Development work has also
started on a next-generation
strategic bomber, via Moscows
PAK DA programme. Due to be
own before 2019, the design is
also being headed by Tupolev.
To download our free World Air
Forces directory, go online at
ightglobal.com/WAF
COMPETITION DOMINIC PERRY LONDON
Bids in for Polish helicopter contest

AgustaWestland, Airbus and Sikorsky consortia table proposals in pursuit of tri-service deal for 70 multirole rotorcraft
back by one month at the request

of AgustaWestland and Sikorsky.
The latters PZL Mielec subsidiary had suggested in October that
it would not table a bid unless
Poland altered its terms for the
contest, which stipulated the delivery of a single aircraft type.
The defence ministry says it
will examine the competing
EC725, AW149 and S-70i Black
Hawk/S-70B Seahawk before
choosing which rotorcraft will be
taken forward for testing. Additional study of the industrial offsets proposed by the bidders will
also be carried out, it says, ahead
of a potential contract award in

the second half of 2015.
Shortly before the ministrys announcement,
AgustaWestland
signed several tentative offset
deals with local companies, which
it says are worth around 800 million ($954 million) and will form
part of an overall package amounting to billions of euros.
AgustaWestland plans to work
with Fabryka Broni Radom, Military Aviation Works No. 1 in
d, Military Aviation Works
The EC725 is in the running, alongside the AW149 and S-70i/B

flightglobal.com
No. 2 in Bydgoszcz and ZM

Tarnw to deliver as many as 50
offset projects.
These include the fabrication
of helicopter subassemblies and
the design, production and overhaul of weapons and weapon
systems for the AW149.
The company says it also will
establish a global production
and development centre for the
8.3t type in Poland if it wins the
deal, opening up global export
opportunities.
PAYLOAD BARTOSZ GLOWACKI WARSAW
Warsaw signs JASSM weapons deal
Airbus Helicopters
hree bidders will ght it out

in a contest to supply 70 multirole helicopters to Polands
armed forces, after Sikorsky backtracked on its threat to withdraw
from the process.
Warsaw on 30 December conrmed that consortia led by Airbus Helicopters, PZL Swidnik
the
Polish
subsidiary
of
AgustaWestland and Sikorsky
had all submitted bids to the defence ministry.
Responses to its tri-service requirement had previously been
scheduled for delivery by the end
of November, but were pushed
Polands defence ministry has

signed a $250 million contract to
purchase Lockheed Martin
AGM-158A JASSM weapons for the
nations air force. Finalised at
Krzesiny air base last month, the
deal will equip the services
Lockheed F-16C/D aircraft.
Lockheed will supply 40 of the
stand-off-range missiles under the
contract, with a first batch of weapons to be delivered in 2017.
The manufacturer will also provide
two instrumented test weapons, plus
inert training rounds, support equipment and personnel training.

The Polish air forces fighters will
also undergo an operational
flightplan upgrade to the M6.5
software standard to enable integration of the JASSM.
Under the terms of the Foreign
Military Sales deal, an initial $75
million payment was made by the
end of 2014. A further $100 million
will be transferred this year, and the
remainder of the contract sum paid
in 2017.
DEFENCE
For all the latest news on defence

developments and deliveries, visit
ightglobal.com/defence
PROGRAMME STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC
Joint programme office insists General Dynamics design

and electro-optical sensor on track for 2017 inclusion
wo critical close air support

systems a 25mm cannon
and an electro-optical targeting
system (EOTS) will both be
available and meet expectations
on the Lockheed Martin F-35 by
2017, programme ofcials say.
Defending the systems in a 7
January response to what it calls
nameless/sourceless/baseless
reporting over recent weeks, the
F-35 joint programme ofce (JPO)
acknowledged one new development problem for the gun, and
some operational limitations for
the Lockheed-built EOTS sensor.
Countering a claim that the

F-35s General Dynamics GAU-22
gun is unable to be red until
2019, the JPO says it will be delivered when the aircrafts Block 3F
software becomes operational.
That is now scheduled to occur in
scal year 2017, with aircraft to be
built during the ninth lot of lowrate initial production (LRIP 9).
The JPO says operators accepted
the timeline for the cannon system
in 2005, at which point the Block
3F software was supposed to be installed on LRIP 5 aircraft handed
over in 2013. However, software
Lockheed Martin
F-35 chiefs return

re on baseless
cannon reporting
An external pod is used to house the B-models GAU-22 weapon
development was subsequently
delayed by four years.
In its statement, the JPO conrms that laboratory tests conducted in December identied a
minor low-level issue with the
software controlling the gun system, but says this is due to be xed
early this year and will have no
impact on its elding schedule.
The JPO also countered a Daily
Beast report by asserting that the
EOTS sensor will enter service
with the ability to transmit still images to the ground via the aircrafts
Link 16 transmitter. However, it
concedes the system will initially

lack several features commonly
found on the latest generation of
targeting pods, including higher
denition video, longer range target detection and identication,
video data link and an infrared
marker and pointer. Customers
will be able to add those capabilities in later block upgrades, it says.
As with all development programmes, the F-35 baseline requirements dene the starting
place for capabilities that will be
evolved and upgraded over the life
of the programme, says the JPO.
UNMANNED SYSTEMS STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC
Hawkeye unit to take UCLASS fleet under its wing

he US Navy has decided to
embed its future unmanned
carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike (UCLASS)
aircraft in the same air wing that
operates the Northrop Grumman
E-2C/D airborne command and
control platform.
Naval ofcials conrmed their
decision in a little-noticed directive dated 18 December, which
says a new UCLASS unit called
the eet introduction team will
be established on 1 October 2015,
as a detachment to an E-2C/Dequipped airborne command and
control logistics wing aboard an
aircraft carrier. The latter monitors airspace for hostile aircraft
and missiles and directs strike

aircraft from the vessel.
While the Naval Air Systems
Command has decided to assign
the unmanned strike eet to the
control of a Hawkeye unit, it has
not yet settled on the details of how
future E-2 crews will operate
alongside the system. As recently
as August 2014, the USNs options

had also included operating
UCLASS aircraft as a standalone
unit, or as a detachment to a wing
of Lockheed Martin F-35C ghters.
Meanwhile, the future of the
UCLASS programme remains uncertain. Boeing, General Atomics
Aeronautical Systems, Lockheed
US Navy
Northrop Grummans X-47B set the scene for the $6bn contest
Download the 2015

Wo r l d A i r F o r c e s R e p o r t
and Northrop Grumman have

been waiting for six months for
the navy to release a nal request
for proposals for a contract worth
up to $6 billion. Last September,
Pentagon ofcials put UCLASS on
hold, including the programme in
a wider review of intelligence,
surveillance and reconnaissance
spending.
There has been a long-running
debate over the design requirements for UCLASS. Some members of Congress have criticised the
USN for relaxing a requirement to
make the aircraft less detectable on
radar, instead limiting the type to
mainly performing surveillance
tasks in uncontested airspace.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
w w w. f l i g h t g l o b a l . c o m / w a f
flightglobal.com
BUSINESS AVIATION
Can maths solve

mystery of MH370s
resting place?
NEWS ANALYSIS P20
TURBOPROPS
KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
DELIVERY KATE SARSFIELD LONDON
Gulfstream ships first all-new G650ER

G
ulfstream delivered its rst

all-new
ultra-long-range
G650ER business jet to a private
owner on 19 December.
Up to this point, Gulfstream
had only completed a $2 million
ER retrot of a baseline G650.
The G650ER was launched in
May 2014, securing US approval
ve months later. The $66.5 million aircraft is the longest-legged
production business jet, boasting
a range of 7,500nm (13,900km) at
Mach 0.85 500nm more than
the standard G650, which entered service two years ago. This
extra mileage allows the type to
connect to more city pairs than

its stablemate.
The long distances are made
possible by an extra 1,810kg
(4,000lb) of fuel carried in the
G650ERs wings. Gulfstream has
updated the types software for
fuel-quantity
measuring
to
account for the added fuel and
performance gains.
The G650ERs closest rivals are
Bombardiers in-development
Global 7000 and 8000, which are
projected to have a range of
7,300nm and 7,900nm when they
enter service in 2016 and 2017,
respectively.
Piaggio prepares
first Avanti Evos
for service entry
Meanwhile, an automatic dependent surveillance broadcast

(ADS-B) solution by Garmin has
been certicated for Gulfstreams
G150, bringing NextGen air trafc
control compliance to global operators of the midsize business jet.
The upgrade is being offered at the
airframers service centre in Dallas, Texas. It entails replacing the
G150s transponders with the latest regulatory compliant units, a
universal access transceiver and
three antennas.
Garmin is planning to introduce an ADS-B solution this year
for the super-midsize G200.
DEVELOPMENT STEPHEN TRIMBLE WASHINGTON DC
Passport to success as GE
begins engine ight testing
Powerplant for Global 7000 and 8000 on track for year-end certification, despite delays
he Passport engine selected to
power Bombardiers in-development Global 7000 and 8000
business jets has entered ight
testing at GE Aviation.
Trials started on 30 December
on a GE ying testbed a Boeing
747-100 based in Victorville,
California, GE says.
The 16,500lb-thrust (73kN)
powerplant remains on track to
complete certication by the end
of 2015, despite entering ight
tests about six months late.
The programme was delayed
while GE ran tests of the powerplant in a windtunnel at low altitudes, according to vice-president of business and general
aviation Brad Mottier, who
briefed journalists on the delay
last October.
Bombardier is counting on GE
to certicate the Passport engine
by the end of this year. The powerplant can then join a certication programme for the rst
Global 7000, which is scheduled
to enter service in 2016.
Since its rst test in 2013, the
Passport engine has met or exceeded our expectations, giving
flightglobal.com
Bombardier
The Global 7000 is projected to have a range of 7,300nm

us great condence as we close in
on certication, Mottier says.
The Passport replaces the
venerable CF34 in GEs portfolio,
but with several key new technologies. One is a 1.32m- (52in)diameter front fan blisk, which
is a single component instead of a
separate rotor and blades.
The advantage of a blisk is that
it minimises the size of the rotor
hub, allowing more air to ow
around and through the core of
the engine to improve fuel efciency. The risk is that the Passport will feature the largest blisk
designed to date for a commercial
aircraft engine.
GE is also introducing a new

form of ceramic matrix composites (CMC) in the Passport engine.
The Leap engine series in development by GE-Snecma joint
venture CFM International is the
rst to use CMCs inside the core
of an engine, with these being
made from a silicon-carbide material, while the Passport is designed with CMCs using an oxide-oxide material. They will be
used to make the exhaust mixer,
the centre-body and core cowls.
In ground testing the Passport
engine programme has so far
accumulated 750h and 300
cycles, GE says.
iaggio Aerospace is readying

the rst two Avanti Evos for
delivery to their Indian owners
this month, following certication in late December by the
countrys civil aviation authority.
The announcement comes as
joint venture partners AirGo
Flugservice and Fractional Jet Europe (FJE) prepare to launch their
Avanti-based fractional ownership programme.
We plan to buy our rst aircraft in the next few weeks and
then launch services in April,
say FJE founder and chief executive Chris Moody.
The rst aircraft will be a preowned Avanti II, but we plan to
add the Evo to the eet as demand grows, he adds.
Mainz, Germany-based AirGo
already operates four Avantis,
which will be used to provide supplemental lift to FJE jet card customers. We have had really positive feedback about the Avanti.
Prospective customers are particularly drawn to the aircrafts spacious [midsize] cabin and low operating costs. The Evo will be even
more appealing, Moody adds.
The $7.4 million Evo is an
upgrade of the nine-year old
Avanti II, featuring a revamped
and quieter interior, enhanced
safety features and increased
performance thanks to new
The $7.4 million Evo

is an upgrade of the
nine-year old Avanti II,
featuring a revamped
and quieter interior
winglets, redesigned engine nacelles, a reshaped front wing and
ve-bladed composite scimitar
propellers.
Piaggio has secured 16 orders
and 28 options for the seven-seat
aircraft to date, and plans to
produce around 12 of the type
this year.
NEWS ANALYSIS
David Learmount offers his succinct views

on the complexities of aviation safety:
ightglobal.com/Learmount
SEARCH DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON
Can maths solve mystery

of MH370s resting place?
Senior 777 captain believes he has calculated crash site of missing Malaysian airliner
n original geometric approach to the sparse data

available about the ight path of
missing Malaysia Airlines ight
MH370 suggests a nal resting
place in the Indian Ocean just
outside the far south-western
edge of the core search area designated by the Australian Transport
Safety Bureau (ATSB) in the
southern Indian Ocean.
The Boeing 777-200ER has
been missing since 8 March 2014,
and no trace of it has been found,
despite an extensive multinational search.
Capt Simon Hardys calculations are based on a combination
of data which include Inmarsat
satellite communication handshake arcs and his expertise in
777 performance calculation, as
well as some mathematical reverse engineering of the navigation geometry known to apply to
this ight.
Hardy currently works as a

senior 777 captain for a major international airline. Like other
aviators he was distressed by
MH370s loss, and his concern
that relatives of those on board
might never know what happened inspired him to begin a geometric investigation of known
navigational facts. He emerged
with a set of conclusions that enabled him to isolate what he believes to be MH370s actual track.
REVERSE ENGINEERING
Rather than picking speeds and a
route at random and making them
t with the [satcom handshake]
arcs, I have managed to let the arcs
tell us both the speed and direction, and nally a location the
exact track between arcs 4 and 6
where it was doing that speed and
heading, Hardy says. His reverse
engineering involved testing a series of plausible tracks southward
WHAT IF TRACKS BETWEEN THE 4TH AND 6TH SATCOM

HANDSHAKE ARCS
A
601kt Speeds inbound from ANOKO
601kt
541kt
Actual tr
491kt
rc
h a TC
5t 41U
:
22
S27
428kt
arc C
4th 1UT
4
:
21
S22
ack 188T
f Cancer
Tropic o
S37
485kt
488kt co
nstant
443kt
S32
c
ar TC
h
6t 11U
:
00
7t
c
ar
S37
Not to scale
SOURCE: Capt Simon Hardy
S42
over the Indian Ocean from the

777s last known position, and discovering the only trajectory that
uniquely matches the ratio of actual elapsed times between the
consecutive
Inmarsat/MH370
handshakes. He then found that
certain known data made sense,
when tested against that navigational trajectory. For example, the
actual elapsed time between
handshake arcs would occur if
the 777 was ying at its long-range
cruise speed possibly a coincidence, but a likely choice by the
person directing the ight.
Hardy worked with one key assumption: that, once set on this
southward cruise, the aircrafts
true air speed and its track (based
on true north), remained the same.
He explains: For the purposes of
this purely mathematical/geometrical investigation I am making one
assumption: that in most scenarios
[hypoxia, re, a hidden hand], the
track and speed of the aircraft from
2141Z [UTC/GMT at the 4th handshake arc] to 0011Z [time at the 6th
arc] would be constant.
INFORMATION
He continues: In order to extract
the information from the arcs we
have to introduce some what ifs.
What if the aircraft crossed the
4th arc at some random position say Position A [see diagram left]? And if it did, what
route could it have taken from
there? If a series of straight lines
are projected from point A
through arcs 4 and 5 to different
points on arc 6, only one satises
the ratio of 1:1.5. That ratio is
derived from the 1h between the
satellite handshakes at arcs 4 and
5, and 1h 30min between 5 and 6;
the actual times for MH370.
Line A shows the only straight
line from point A that satises
this ratio. If we now measure the
distance of the line from arc 4 to
arc 5 we will get the distance travelled in that hour, hence the
speed required to y Line A:

541kt [1,000km/h]. Using the
same elapsed-time ratio between
handshake arcs, he says the
speeds required to y to random
points B and C would have been
428kt and 491kt, respectively.
All these lines appear to be
nearly parallel. This is great
news, says Hardy, as we can
measure the angle of the lines.
We nd that they only vary from
188T [track] to 192T. This suggests that the aircrafts true track
between 2141Z and 0011Z was
190T, plus or minus 2.
The next task again purely
using maths was to try to nd
out where MH370 actually
crossed the arcs, assuming it was
ying this approximately 190T
flightglobal.com
NEWS ANALYSIS
Believe it or not,
its safer to fly
FEATURE P22
MH370 TRACK FROM WAYPOINT ANOKO TO SPLASHDOWN
The Boeing
777-200 went
missing on
8 March 2014
ANOKO
Visible to military radar
Malaysia
Kuala Lumpur
MH370 timing (UTC) with

corresponding rings
ANOKO
Arc 4 21:41
Satellite ring derivation

Ring of locations equidistant
from satellite on earth surface
10S
Arc 5 22:41
Arc 6 00:11
Arc 7 00:19
AirTeamImages
This meeting of all

three lines in one
place makes one
feel great condence
in the result
track, starting from a known position. The last radar contact position of the aircraft was at 1822Z.
Inmarsat-measured beat frequency
offset data indicates that the 777
was still on a westerly heading
3min later, and that it had turned
southerly by 1840Z, leaving a
point somewhere within a 15min
window when the turn happened.
Extending the line from just
south of Penang [where the aircrafts radar track passed] to the
1822Z position, it lines up within
2 with waypoint ANOKO on the
Chennai FIR boundary, Hardy
says [see diagram right]. Its
route and speed are known from
1722Z until 1822Z, so we can
work out a time at ANOKO of
1836Z. This satises the 15min
flightglobal.com
Rex Features
A multinational search failed

to find any trace of MH370
SIMON HARDY
Senior 777 captain
window so we will use ANOKO

as the turn point.
Again using the what if
points A, B and C, which are all
on the 4th arc as dened by a satcom handshake at 2141Z, this
means MH370 had 3h 5min to y
from ANOKO to arc 4. Hardys
measurements suggest respective
results of 443kt, 485kt and 601kt,
with the speed required to cover
the distance increasing the more
westerly the track is from the start
point. As a result, he says, there is
only one place where the speed
from ANOKO to the 4th arc is the
same as the speed from that point
to the 5th and 6th arcs.
Plotting a graph of true air
speed against longitude using the
three speeds derived for the sectors from ANOKO to arc 4 and
then for the legs beyond points A,
B and C, the lines cross at 488kt
7th
a
20S
115
11
1
15
1
5
rc
Not visible
to radar
True airspe
ed 488kt/
Track 188 M0.84
T
110
11
1
1
10
Australia
30S
Area surveye
e
eye
eyed
Previous search
a
area
Splash zone position: S38.082 E87.400
40S
85E
90E
95E
100E
105E
110E
115E
120E
SOURCE: Capt Simon Hardy/Inmarsat/Boeing/Google
and 91.25E. Using the same logic,

if at this point a fourth line is
drawn just 5nm west of line C,
the speed that ts the equations
at this line is 488kt and the true
track is 188T, which Hardy suggests is MH370s actual track.
VALIDATION
Another group of aviators, calling
themselves the Independent
Group and also offering advice
for the ATSB team like Hardy
calculates the southbound leg as
beginning at ANOKO and offers a
remarkably similar track, of
187T. As the group reached its
conclusions via slightly differing
logic, the calculations could be
considered to validate each other.
Hardy tests his argument
against calculations about where
the aircrafts fuel would have
been exhausted. If we follow the
188T line to the 7th arc we nd
that it meets it almost exactly at
the same place where the fuel circle crosses the 7th arc, he says.
We have not used any reference
to fuel in the analysis whatsoever,
so this meeting of all three lines
in one place makes one feel great
condence in the result. The
188T track line crosses the 7th
arc at S38.528 E87.336.
Finally, he renes his data for
variations created by the aircrafts
descent. This method gives a
splash zone position of S38.082
E87.400. The maximum range
cruise [fuel exhaustion] arc also
goes extremely close to this point
[within 30nm].
Hardy notes: The ATSB [October] area of interest extends some
600nm along the 7th arc, but
stops 20nm short of where the
188T crosses arc 7, where I believe the aircraft is positioned.
For a more detailed version of
Capt Hardys calculations, go to
ightglobal.com/MH370
COVER STORY
During January, Indonesian authorities have been trying to recover the AirAsia Airbus A320 that crashed into the Java Sea on 28 December
BELIEVE IT OR NOT,
ITS SAFER TO FLY
Despite public perception,
2014 was an extraordinarily
good year for aviation safety
but the gloom of MH370,
MH17 and Decembers
AirAsia disaster casts a
long shadow over the
positive gures
DAVID LEARMOUNT LONDON
alendar year 2014 has turned out to

be the best 12 months ever for airline safety, according to Ascend, a
Flightglobal advisory service. For
many this may seem an unexpected result,
given the perceptions created by the high-prole losses of two Malaysia Airlines Boeing
777s and the crash of an AirAsia Airbus A320
just before year-end.
Ascends director of air safety and insurance, Paul Hayes, reveals that the global airline fatal accident rate in 2014 was one fatal
accident per 2.38 million ights. On this basis
2014 was, narrowly, the safest year ever.
The gures exclude the 17 July loss over
eastern Ukraine of Malaysia ight MH17, on
the grounds that it was shot down by a guided
missile and is considered a war risk loss, not
an accident. Although doubts exist about the

status of missing Malaysia ight MH370 (see
accident tables), that incident has been included in the fatal accident rates. If the disappearance were, however, eventually conrmed as the result of a deliberate act by
someone on board as many experts in Malaysia and elsewhere now believe and if it
were therefore excluded from the accident
statistics, its absence would make the 2014
gures even more impressive. MH370 was the
largest single loss of the year in terms of people presumed dead as a result of the incident.
IMPROVING
The previous best airline safety year was 2012,
with a fatal accident rate of one per 2.37 million ights, says Hayes. In the other years since
2010, the fatal accident rate was one per 1.91
million ights in 2013, one per 1.4 million in
flightglobal.com
ANALYSIS
OUTLOOK
2011 and one per 1.26 million in 2010. The average for the last ve years is now about one
fatal accident per 1.75 million ights.
The 2014 Malaysian disasters, however,
have twisted perceptions of airline safety, despite 2014 being such a safe year. Ascends
2014 Safety Perception Survey starts by quoting an actual newspaper headline fairly representative of media reaction: As another jet
crashes is it safe to y? The study later sums
up why this appears to be the perception: The
year 2014 will be remembered for the loss of
the two Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777s, resulting in 510 passenger and 27 crew deaths.
Given the strange circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the rst 777,
which is considered likely due to some form
of unlawful interference, and the shooting
down of the second, these losses would seem
to be more to do with security than safety.
Nevertheless, they still would have had a signicant impact on the public perception of
airline safety.
The fact is that passengers died in aircraft.
Nervous travellers do not distinguish between
the causes of death.
Ascends fatal accident rate statistics include all commercial airline ights by jets and
turboprops with a seat capacity of 14 and
above. Each year Flight International
flightglobal.com
SEVERAL STUDIES or projects

aimed at reducing threats to
airline safety are likely to
come to fruition in 2015.
In one of these, reacting to
the French investigators recommendations in the report
on the loss of Air France flight
447 over the South Atlantic in
2009, Airbus says it is preparing to fit deployable flight data
recorders with embedded
emergency locator transmitters in A350s and A380s.
The European airframer
says there is more work to do
yet, and at the same time
there is debate in the industry
about how practical this is. No
aviation authorities at present are planning to mandate deployable FDRs (see
Feature P32).
ICAOs task force on risks to
civil aircraft from conflict
zones, set up after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines
flight MH17, will almost certainly produce its conclusions
this year perhaps as early as
February, at the organisations
High Level Safety Conference.
So far the task force has been
exploring how the existing
Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) system could be better used to

share urgent and critical conflict zone risk information.
Meanwhile, key ICAO partners are working on setting
up a new centralised system
The problem for

the risk-takers in
both the war and
all-risk markets is
huge overcapacity
ASCEND
Flightglobal advisory service
for the prompt sharing of conflict zone risk information.

However, says ICAO, it will remain the responsibility of airlines to decide where they fly.
In 2014, ICAO, with the full
backing of IATA and following
the loss of Malaysia Airlines
flight MH370, also set up a
task force on flight tracking
which should report this year.
The organisation wants to develop a flight tracking concept
of operations covering how
the new tracking data gets
shared, with whom, and under

what circumstances. It is also
investigating setting up performance-based international
standards to ensure the
broader adoption of airline
flight tracking throughout the
aviation system.
Analysts at Ascend, a
Flightglobal advisory service,
note that the aviation insurance war-risk market has hardened slightly because of the
MH17 shoot-down loss and
fighting in Libya but not as
much as the providers had
hoped.
Ascend predicts that unless
there are more war losses next
year, rates will soften again.
Meanwhile, remarks the consultancy: The all-risk market
has hardened a little in that
they are not giving so many
reductions, and they are either
holding the line or getting
small increases, but nothing to
write home about.
If nothing much happens,
next year the market will soften again, it adds. The problem for the risk-takers in both
the war and all-risk markets is
huge overcapacity.
Rex Features
PA
CONTINUING THE DRIVE FOR IMPROVEMENT
A TransAsia Airways ATR 72-500 crashed as it tried to land in Magong, Taiwan, in July
COVER STORY
WORLD AIRLINE FATAL ACCIDENTS AND FATALITIES 2005-2014

Fatalities
1,600
1,400
Fatal accidents
34
27
1,200
1,000
744
400
749
2006
2007
21
817
583
30
19
425
671
2008
10-year average fatalities = 670

2009
2010
2011
25
20
15
10
514
10-year average fatal accidents = 27

2005
26
26
863
600
35
32
28
25
1,050
800
200
40
34
The downing of Malaysia Airlines

ight MH17 over eastern Ukraine
in July is considered a war risk
loss rather than an accident
2012
281
2013
2014
SOURCE: Flightglobal
publishes gures in its global airline safety review which also include relatively rare
but still existing accidents to commercial
airline ights operated with piston-engined
aircraft. As a result, although the gures are
similar and tell the same broad story, the
numbers differ slightly. Flight Internationals
2014 gures, like those of Ascend, do not include MH17 on the grounds that it was a war
loss, but assume until evidence suggests otherwise that MH370 was an accident.
INTERPRETATION
According to the Flight International terms of
reference, there were 19 fatal accidents the
lowest ever gure and 671 fatalities in 2014
(see graph). This compares with 2013, in
which the respective gures were 26 fatal accidents and 281 fatalities the number of
deaths an all-time low. In the previous best
year 2012 there were only 21 fatal accidents, but 425 fatalities. The logic of choosing
the best year as the one with the lowest
number of fatal accidents rather than deaths is
that the fatalities total depends mostly on the
size of the aircraft that crashes. So 2014s total
of 671 fatalities results from the fact that three
of the accidents involved big jets, and one a
large turboprop. If evidence emerges that
MH370 was not an accident and its gures
were removed from the accident tables, the
2014 numbers would fall to 18 fatal accidents
and 432 fatalities.
The statistical risk to each individual passenger is affected more by the number of passengers that died than the number of fatal accidents. As a result 2014 took a backward step in
this respect, as three big jets suffered fatal accidents with the subsequent loss of everyone on
board. The Ascend 2014 gures show that
INVESTIGATIONS
ACCIDENT REPORTS PUBLISHED IN LAST SIX MONTHS OF 2014

THE FACT that no aircraft system
alarms triggered before a 2013 LAM
Mozambique Embraer 190 crash
has led Namibian investigators to
conclude that the captain deliberately disengaged multiple systems
before the aircraft crashed. The aircraft had been cruising at 38,000ft
when cockpit voice recordings picked
up the sound of the altitude pre-select being dialled to 4,288ft, then to
1,888ft and again to 592ft. Shortly
afterwards the autothrottle was disengaged and one of the air conditioning packs deactivated. Neither event
generated a caution alarm, and the
Namibian transport ministry, in an
interim statement, says this indicates the actions were intentional.
Similarly, the aircrafts mode was
subsequently switched from altitude
hold to flight-level change without
any evidence of a failure of the flight

management system. Therefore it is
possible to infer that these transitions were manually commanded,
the inquiry states. The captain had
been alone as the first officer had left
for the lavatory. Flight data recorder
information shows that the jet departed from its assigned altitude and
began a rapid straight-line descent
that lasted for 6min 42s before
Namibian radar lost contact. The rate
of descent reached a maximum
10,560ft/min and a nose-down pitch
of 10, triggering several overspeed
warnings. The aircraft crashed in
Bwabwata National Park. None of the
six crew members or 27 passengers
survived. Investigators are yet to
draw any official conclusions from
the recorded information, but there is
little in the interim statement to coun-
ter early suspicions that the flight

was sabotaged by the captain. No
distress call was made, although the
crew had been in radio contact with
Gaborone controllers before the sudden descent at the EXEDU waypoint.
The Namibian inquiry states that no
mechanical faults were detected,
and the first officer left the cockpit
minutes before the 29 November
2013 crash. Repeated banging on
the cockpit door is suspected to have
been the copilots attempt to gain
access to the flightdeck.
Italian investigators have concluded that a Wind Jet Airbus A319 that
landed well short of Palermos runway on 24 September 2010 did so
after deciding to continue a non-precision approach at night in poor weather, despite failing to sight the runway
at the minimum descent altitude

(MDA). Italian investigation authority
ANSV has determined that the pilots
demonstrated a poor attitude towards crew resource management
and failed to maintain a sterile cockpit during the descent, or to carry out
proper approach briefings. The aircraft landed 367m (1,200ft) short of
the runway 07 threshold and skidded
for 850m, suffering such extensive
damage that the twinjet was written
off. The ANSV says there was deliberate disregard for procedures at
the point of reaching the MDA, when
the crew should confirm the runway
as being in sight and execute a
go-around if it is not. However, as the
aircraft crossed the minimum altitude of 710ft, the captain urged the
first officer, who was flying, to continue the approach despite being
flightglobal.com
Rex Features
ANALYSIS
unable to confirm a runway sighting.

The first officer subsequently identified the runway at 480ft, and the captain took control of the aircraft. At
240ft the first officer exclaimed that
he saw four red a reference to
the precision approach path indicator
lamps, which showed the A319 was
far below the correct glidepath. The
inquiry says the adverse weather and
darkness, combined with the descent over water, created a black
hole illusion which led the pilot to
believe the aircraft was high on the
The latest on a 2013

LAM Mozambique
Embraer 190 crash
does little to counter
sabotage suspicions
flightglobal.com
approach. The A319 crossed over

the airports terminal VOR beacon at
a height of 92ft less than half the
200ft expected for a normal
glideslope at that point. Thirty-four
passengers and a crew member suffered minor injuries in the event.
Danish investigators reporting on
a 29 January 2014 Air Greenland de
Havilland Canada Dash 8-200 accident determined that the crew carried out an unstable steep approach
to Ilulissat in above-limit crosswinds.
The resulting hard landing caused a
main-gear collapse and the aircraft
was destroyed as it skidded off runway 07 and down a snow-covered
slope, although only minor injuries
were sustained among the 15 occupants. Danish investigation authority
HCL found that the crew had agreed
to a visual steep approach of 5.1

and a reference airspeed of 99kt
(183km/h). They also accepted a
crosswind limitation 6kt above the
operators limit of 25kt, so the landing should have been abandoned.
The wind conditions and chosen low
flap setting of 15 made it difficult
to maintain stabilised approach criteria. As it passed below 1,000ft the
Dash 8s airspeed was still at 144kt
exceeding the operators stableapproach maximum of 119kt for the
aircrafts configuration. The crew retarded the throttle levers to the flightidle setting at 200ft, causing the
aircraft to descend more rapidly in
excess of 1,000ft/min and sink
beneath the 5.1 glideslope. This
descent rate increased to 1,100ft/
min at 50ft, with the airspeed still at
128kt. HCL says the crew developed
target fixation and a mental blocking of any decision to execute a

go-around. While still airborne, below
a height of 20ft, the crew retarded
the throttle below the flight-idle setting into the beta range designed
for use only on the ground. The HCL
observes: At that point, no safety
barriers were left. With a 6.6 left
bank, the Dash 8 touched down hard
on its left main landing-gear with an
impact of 2.4g, and it collapsed.
The Japan Transport Safety Board
(JTSB) released findings from an investigation into the 16 January 2013

main battery incident aboard an All
Nippon Airways Boeing 787 which
resulted in an emergency landing
and contributed to a global grounding
of the type. While the 100-page
investigation report does not
COVER STORY
The total in 2014 of 671

fatalities results from the
fact that three of the
accidents involved big jets,
and one a large turboprop
2014 PASSENGERS CARRIED PER FATAL ACCIDENT (EXCLUDES ACTS OF VIOLENCE)

Passengers (millions)
16
Passengers carried per passenger fatality
14
Five-year average
12
10
6 million passengers were carried for

every one that was killed in a jet accident,
whereas in 2013 in which the number of fatal
accidents was higher, but the resulting fatalities much lower almost 16 million passengers were carried for every one that died (see
graph, right). This measure is useful for determining how safe commercial aviation is as a
mass public transport system, but it feels rather
articial to a passenger who, on boarding a
ight, hopes the entire ight will be safe, rather
than taking comfort in the fact that his personal
chance of survival is 6 million-to-one in favour.
There were two accidents in 2014 that occurred in similar circumstances both were
in tropical latitudes at cruising level, and just
before they disappeared their crews radioed
that they needed to manoeuvre to avoid bad
weather. The rst was an Air Algerie/Swiftair
Boeing MD-80 over Mali in July, the second
an AirAsia Airbus A320 over the Java Sea in
December (see accident list). For reasons yet
to be established, neither crew managed to retain control of the aircraft.
It is worthy of note that in recent years the
same circumstances have had a similar result
in two other cases. One was the 1 June 2009
8
6
4
2
0
1990
1995
2000
2005
SOURCE: Ascend
2010
2014
Note: Jet and turboprop aircraft of more than 14 seats
2014 FLIGHTS PER FATAL ACCIDENT (EXCLUDES ACTS OF VIOLENCE)

Flights (millions)
2.5
Flights per fatal accident

Five-year average
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
0.0
1990
SOURCE: Ascend
1995
2000
2005
2010
2014
Note: Jet and turboprop aircraft of more than 14 seats or cargo equivalent
CONTINUED
ACCIDENT REPORTS PUBLISHED IN LAST SIX MONTHS OF 2014

identify a specific cause for the
lithium-ion battery failure aboard ANA
flight 692, it provides probable causes and has recommendations for
both the US Federal Aviation
Authority and Boeing. Internal heat
generation in cell six very likely developed into venting, making it the initiating cell, resulting in cell-to-cell
propagation and subsequent failure
of the main battery, the report says.
It is very likely that cell six internal
heat generation and increased internal pressure caused it to swell, melt
the surrounding insulation material
and contact the brace bar, creating a
grounding path that allowed high currents to flow through the battery box.
The currents generated arcing internal to the battery that contributed to
cell-to-cell propagation consequently
destroying the battery. It adds that
the heat generation in cell six was

probably due to a short circuit, but
says the conclusive mechanism
thereof was not identified. During
the Yamaguchi Ube-Tokyo flight the
flightcrew received several battery
warnings and smelled fumes in the
cockpit. They made an emergency
landing at Takamatsu, where all 129
passengers and eight crew were
evacuated via the aircrafts slides.
The ANA incident followed another
lithium-ion battery failure on 11
January 2013, aboard a Japan Air
Lines 787 parked at Boston Logan
International airport. Echoing comments from both the NTSB and
Boeing itself, the JTSB states that
the airframers original testing regimen for the battery was insufficient,
mainly as it did not adequately simulate a realistic operational scenario.
The board recommends that the FAA

instruct manufacturers to test equipment under conditions simulating
actual aircraft configurations, and
review the technical standards for
testing lithium-ion batteries. Boeing
has since redesigned the battery
and its stowage area.
The final report into the crash of a
Lion Air Boeing 737-800 into the sea
on short final to land at Denpasars
Ngurah Rai International airport on
13 April 2013 has identified several
pilot skill deficits and failures in the
carriers emergency response procedures. The National Transportation
Safety Committee (NTSC) report
highlights the failure of the captain
and first officer to communicate effectively during the approach. The
report also refers to CCTV footage
that shows the bad weather and

poor visibility immediately prior to the
crash that prevented the flightcrew
from seeing the runway. The first officer, who was flying, mentioned that
the runway was not in sight as the
aircraft descended through 900ft on
final approach after an uneventful
flight from Bandung. Although the
aircrafts automated systems issued
a minimum warning at 550ft, the
crew disengaged the autopilot and
autothrottle and continued the descent manually. At 300ft the cockpit
voice recorder identifies a sound
consistent with rain hitting the windshield. When the 737 had descended to just 150ft, the captain took
control and the first officer again said
he could not see the runway. After
the enhanced ground proximity warning system called a 20ft height alert
flightglobal.com
ANALYSIS
PA
loss of Air France ight AF447, and the other

the 16 August 2005 loss of a West Caribbean
Airways McDonnell Douglas MD-82. AF447
was lost in the inter-tropical convergence zone
over the South Atlantic Ocean while the pilots
were known to be manoeuvring to avoid storm
clouds. The aircrafts ight data and cockpit
voice recorders were eventually recovered, revealing that the pilots had been confused by an
icing-related loss of airspeed information for
less than a minute, but quickly lost control of
the aircraft. The MD-82, ying from Panama
City to Martinique, went out of control while
the pilots were discussing how to deal with the
airframe and engine icing the aircraft seemed
to be suffering in the cruise. The crew were
cleared by air trafc control to descend because
they said they could not maintain altitude. The
stall warning is known to have operated during
the descent, which took 3.5min from cruise at
33,000ft to impact with the ground.
Perhaps the primary message from 2014
delivered by the fate of ights MH370 and
MH17 is that security is as important as operational and engineering safety for preserving
life. An ICAO commission is looking at the
risks of ying over or close to conict zones as
MH17 did, but determining what to do about a
mystery like MH370 is more difcult. If, as
conjectured, the aircrafts ightpath was deliberately planned and executed by a person on
board with some kind of revenge motive, how
can such a person be recognised?
A de Havilland Canada DHC-6-300 Twin Otter operated by Nepal Airlines crashed in February
the pilot commanded a go-around

but, just 1s later, the aircraft hit the
water. Although there were no fatalities among the 101 passengers and
seven crew, four passengers suffered serious injuries. The aircraft
(PK-LKS) was a complete loss. The
report also shows the crew handled
evacuating the passengers from the
aircraft poorly. The first officer initially
attempted to evacuate passengers
from the jet through the right cockpit
window. When this proved unviable,
he conducted the evacuation
through the right-hand service door.
Meanwhile, a flight attendant on the
left side of the twinjet was unable to
detach a life raft from the aircraft, as
her only training for this exercise consisted of watching a video. The report contains 13 recommendations
for five parties including Lion Air, air-
flightglobal.com
A ight attendant
was unable to detach
a life raft from the
crashed Lion Air
Boeing 737-800
port operator PT Angkasa Pura I and
the Directorate General of Civil
Aviation. The key recommendations,
however, focus on ensuring the pilots
have effective skills in crew resource
management, hand flying and emergency procedures.
French investigators have deter-
mined that fatigue cracking in the

undercarriage of an ACT Airlines
Airbus A300B4 freighter caused the
left main landing-gear to collapse
David Learmount offers his views on aviation

operational and safety issues via his blog at
ightglobal.com/learmount
after touchdown in Afghanistan. The

aircraft (TC-ACB) had been arriving
at Bagram air base after a cargo
service from Bahrain on 1 March
2010. Its crew had already been
alerted to a possible problem during
the visual approach to runway 21
because cockpit indications showed
the left main gear was not locked,
and an absence of pressure in the
green hydraulic system. The A300
carried out two passes over the tower for air traffic controllers to observe the state of the undercarriage.
It appeared normal. About 18s after
touchdown, during braking, the left
gear collapsed, says French investigation authority BEA. The A300 departed the runway and came to rest
2,000m (6,560ft) beyond the
threshold. All five crew evacuated
from the aircraft without injury. BEA
says the articulating arm at the top

of the main gear leg fractured due to
fatigue cracking adding that this
fracture probably occurred as the
gear retracted after take-off. The left
gear subsequently deployed under
gravity when the undercarriage was
extended for landing, leading to a
hydraulic leak. BEAs inquiry states
that some maintenance tasks on
the gear, during its last overhaul at
Turkish Technic, were not completed in the prescribed manner.
Pitting and corrosion in the landinggear assembly went undetected.
Turkish Technic and landing-gear
manufacturer Messier-Bugatti-Dowty
subsequently carried out a review of
procedures, with Messier and Airbus
emphasising the need to apply corrosion protection promptly to parts
awaiting plating treatment.
AIRLINE SAFETY
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS 2014

NOTES ON TABLES
This data comes from Flight Internationals research in association with Flightglobal advisory service Ascend, which compiles the World
Aircraft Accident Summary, among other safety analysis products. Details of non-fatal incidents are not made available ofcially by authorities
in many countries, but Flight International continues to list known signicant incidents to maximise the availability of relevant information.
We accept that the non-fatal listing may be weighted against the airlines of those countries that make safety information more readily available.
GLOSSARY OF TERMS AND ABBREVIATIONS

AA airfield approach/early descent
AAIB UK Air Accidents Investigation
Branch
AAL above airfield level
ACARS automatic communication
addressing and reporting system
ADC air-data computer
ADF automatic direction finder
AF air force
AGL above ground level
AMSL above mean sea level
AOA angle of attack
ASI airspeed indicator
ATC air traffic control
C climb
C-B circuit breaker
CFIT controlled flight into terrain
CNK cause not known
CVR cockpit voice recorder
DME distance measuring equipment
ECAM electronic centralised aircraft
monitor
Date
EFIS electronic flight-instrument

system
EGPWS enhanced ground proximity
warning system
EGT exhaust gas temperature
EICAS engine indicating and
crew alerting system
ER en route
ETOPS extended-range twin
operations
FAA US Federal Aviation
Administration
FDR flight data recorder
FL flight level = altitude, in
hundreds of feet, with international
standard pressure-setting (ISA) of
1013.2mb set on altimeter (eg
FL100 altimeter reading of
10,000ft with ISA set)
FMS flight management system
G on ground
GPU ground power unit
Carrier
Aircraft type/registration
GPWS ground proximity warning

system
HP high pressure
IFR instrument flight rules
IMC instrument meteorological
conditions
ILS instrument landing system
ISA international standard
atmosphere sea level pressure of
1013.2hPa and standard temperature/pressure lapse rate with
altitude
L landing
LP low pressure
MEL minimum equipment list
MTOW maximum take-off weight
NDB non-directional beacon
NTSB US National Transportation
Safety Board
PAPI precision approach path
indicator
PAX passengers
PF pilot flying
PNF pilot not flying
RA runway/final approach
SID standard instrument departure
TAWS terrain awareness and
warning system
TO take-off
TOGA press-button selected takeoff/go-around thrust
VASI visual approach slope indicator
VFR visual flight rules
VHF very high frequency
VMC visual meteorological
conditions
VOR VHF omni-range navigation
beacon
V1 take-off decision speed
Conversion factors
1nm = 1.85km
1ft = 0.3m
1kt = 1.85km/h
Location
Fatalities
Total occupants Phase
(crew/pax) (crew/pax)
Over Malacca Strait
12/227
FATAL EVENTS: SCHEDULED PASSENGER FLIGHTS

8 March
Malaysia Airlines
Boeing 777-200ER (9M-MRO)
12/227
ER
The Malaysian authorities believe the circumstances of this flights disappearance probably suggest deliberate action by a person or persons on board. The aircraft, operating flight MH370 from Kuala Lumpur for
Beijing, took off shortly after midnight and climbed to FL350. Over the Gulf of Thailand, just after Kuala Lumpur ATC had handed the aircraft over to Ho Chi Minh ATC and the crew had acknowledged the handover call,
the aircrafts transponder stopped operating, so MH370 was no longer visible to ATC on secondary radar. The MH370 crew never contacted HCM. No more automatic ACARS transmissions were received after one
was received in the early climb. On military primary radar the aircraft was seen to turn west and fly across the Malaysian peninsula, then head northwest over the Malacca Strait before contact was lost. Inmarsat estimates the aircraft, when over the Andaman Sea, turned south towards the open Indian Ocean. This was deduced from automated aircraft responses to handshake signals from Inmarsat satellites. The aircrafts
handshake responses contained no data, but the aircrafts range from the satellite could be deduced each time. These range pings each provide a long arc on the globes surface, somewhere along which the aircraft must be. This happens each time the handshake takes place, so together with the primary radar data showing the aircrafts early track and speed, this enables an estimated plot of the aircrafts track to be proposed. The last satellite response received came shortly after 08:00 Malaysia time about the time the aircraft would have run out of fuel. Searches have been conducted in the Indian Ocean to the west and
northwest of Australia, but have so far found nothing on the surface or sea bed. The search was suspended in May during winter but resumed in September. The aircraft remains missing and no wreckage has been
found. The crew and passengers are missing, presumed dead.
24 July
Air Algerie
Boeing MD-83 (EC-LTV)
SE of Gossi, Mali
6/110
6/110
ER
En route from Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to Algiers, the aircraft encountered a line of storm cells over the Burkina/Mali border and turned to navigate past them. With the autopilot and autothrust set to maintain
FL310, it appears the aircraft, operated by Spanish carrier Swiftair for Air Algerie, entered an area of descending air and/or severe icing associated with nearby storm clouds. The autothrust reacted by increasing
power, but thrust was insufficient to maintain height and speed, and pitch attitude increased gradually with the autopilot still engaged. The aircraft eventually lost flying speed with its trimmable horizontal stabiliser
still commanding a nose-up attitude, then entered a descent with the autopliot engaged, autothrust disconnected and thrust at idle. The aircrafts attitude eventually changed, reaching 80 nose down and 140 left
bank, with crew control inputs commanding nose-up and right-roll. Impact with the ground occurred about 3min after the flight began to be unstable, and in the last 20s of the descent the engines began winding up
toward full power. The aircraft had been leased from the Spanish carrier Swiftair for the summer.
28 December
AirAsia Indonesia
Airbus A320 (PK-AXC)
Java Sea between Sumatra and

Borneo
7/155
7/155
ER
The aircraft took off at 05:35 local time and reached its 32,000ft cruising level en route Surabaya, Indonesia to Singapore. At 06:12 the crew advised Jakarta ATC that there was bad weather ahead and they wanted
to climb to 38,000ft and alter course to avoid storms. That was the last transmission by the crew. Five minutes later the aircrafts radar return disappeared, and at 06:18 the A320s ADS-B signal was lost. The
Indonesian authorities are conducting a search with multinational resources. Some floating wreckage from the aircraft has been found in the sea.
FATAL ACCIDENTS: REGIONAL AND COMMUTER AIRLINES

16 February
Nepal Airlines
DHC Twin Otter 300 (9N-ABB)
ER Jumla-Pokhara, Nepal
3/15
3/15
ER
Hit high terrain in cloud and deteriorating weather that included embedded cumulonimbus. Investigators say the accident was caused by a crew loss of situational awareness.
flightglobal.com
Rex Features
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS
French investigators determined that an Air Algerie MD-83 lost over Mali entered a rapid spiral descent from which it failed to recover
Date
Carrier
23 July
TransAsia Airways
ATR 72 (B-22810)
Location
Fatalities
Nr Makung, Penghu Islands, Taiwan 4/44
4/54
RA
While attempting a night VOR approach to runway 20 at Makung the crew notified ATC that they were going around, but the aircraft was too low and hit trees about 500m short of the runway and 500m left of the
extended centreline. The weather was bad, affected by the passage of Typhoon Matmo, with 800m visibility, heavy rain and gusting wind. Press reports say a thunderstorm was stationary over the airfield. The flight
had been delayed by 1.5h because of the weather at Makung.
10 August
Sepahan Airlines
HESA IrAn-140 (EP-GPA)
Tehran Mehrabad airport, Iran
6/42
6/42
Almost immediately after take-off from runway 29L the aircraft veered right and crashed about 1.5km (1 mile) northwest of the departure end of the runway. Local press reports suggest the right engine failed after
V1. The weather was hot and clear, with a temperature of 38C (100F). Mehrabads elevation is 3,962ft.
20 September HeviLift
DHC Twin Otter (P2-KSF)
Mount Lawes, Nr Port Moresby,

Papua New Guinea
2/2
2/7
AA
The aircraft crashed into Mount Lawes close to its peak while positioning visually to land at Port Moresby. The weather was rainy with low cloud, and the mountain was shrouded in cloud at its peak. The aircraft was
on an IFR flightplan but some 32nm (60km) from PM it was cleared for a visual approach. ATC repeated several times during the descent that the flightcrew must maintain visual contact with terrain, and join via a
left base leg to land on runway 14R. When closer the captain radioed that he was running into a bit of cloud and was going to position to join an ILS for 14. Actually, under the circumstances, he could not have
made a visual intercept of the ILS from his position, and ATC reissued the warning to stay visual with terrain. The alternative would have been to climb and ask for radar vectors to join the ILS.
FATAL ACCIDENTS: NON-PASSENGER FLIGHTS

18 January
Trans Guyana Airways
Cessna Grand Caravan (8R-GHS)
Mazaruni region, Guyana
ER
This cargo flight crashed in forest not long after take-off from OIive Creek bound for Imbaimadai. The pilot put out a mayday call stating that the aircraft was going down.
17 February
Global Air Connection
BAe 748-2B (5Y-HAJ)
Rabkona airport, South Sudan
The aircraft was chartered by the International Organisation for Migration, which reports that it veered off the runway and across a ditch. One of its wings hit vehicles, causing a fire.
8 April
Hageland Aviation Services
Cessna Grand Caravan (N126AR)
50km SE of Bethel, Alaska, USA
ER
North of San Vicente del Cagun,

Colombia
ER
The aircraft entered a steep descent during crew training manoeuvres in good daylight weather and hit the ground.
8 May
Aliansa
Douglas DC-3 (HK4700)
The aircraft was operating a cargo flight from Villavicencio to Florencia but came down in high terrain north of San Vicente. Official casualty reports say there were five crew on board, but press reports maintain there
were six.
2 July
Skyward International Aviation Fokker 50 (5Y-CET)
Nairobi International airport, Kenya
The aircraft veered left after a night take-off from runway 06, lost height and crashed into a building about 2,000m (6,560ft) beyond the runway end and 1,000m left of the extended centreline. It was destroyed by fire.
23 August
Doren Air Congo
Let L-410 (9Q-CXB)
Nr Kalika, DR Congo
ER
The aircraft disappeared en route from Kavumu airport, Bukavu to Kama, and was later found crashed and burned in a remote part of the Kahuzi-Biga National Park about 30km (18 miles) southwest of its departure point. It was carrying about 1,500kg of cargo.
30 August
Ukraine Air Alliance
Antonov An-12 (UR-DWF)
Nr Tagrambait, Algeria
The aircraft, en route from Tamanrasset to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea and carrying a load of oil drilling equipment, crashed with no distress call in the desert about 15km (9 miles) south-southwest of Tamanrasset. It
was a clear night and there was a long wreckage trail over the flat ground it crashed on.
31 August
Safari Express Cargo
Fokker F-27 (5Y-SXP)
Nr Kogatende, Tanzania
ER
Maho Bay, St Maarten, Netherlands 2

Antilles
ER
ER
En route from Mwanza to Nairobi, Kenya, the aircraft was lost with no communication while in cruise at FL140 over Serengeti National Park.
29 October
Skyway Enterprises
Bombardier Short 360 (N380MQ)
After a night take-off from runway 28 at St Maarten in poor weather, the aircraft crashed into the sea about 5km (3 miles) beyond its departure point.
14 November
Global Air Connection
BAE Systems HS748 (5Y-BVQ)
Panyagor/Kongor airstrip, South

Sudan
The aircraft touched down about 300m short of the runway and hit some small houses under the approach path, coming to rest 20m from the threshold where it burned out.
28 December
Air Services
BN Islander (8R-GHE)
Position uncertain, Guyana
The aircraft took off from Mahdia bound for Karisparu, and was declared missing when it did not arrive. A search continues.
28 December
Unconrmed
Antonov An-26
DR Congo nr border with Burundi
The aircraft was on a night cargo flight from Bujumbura, Burundi to Pointe-Noire, DR Congo when it hit high ground.
flightglobal.com
AIRLINE SAFETY
Date
Carrier
Location
Injuries
SIGNIFICANT NON-FATAL ACCIDENTS (ALL OPERATIONAL CATEGORIES)

2 January
Nature Air
Bombardier Dash 6 (TI-BFN)
La Fortuna airport, Costa Rica
-/-
2/?
Airbus A320 (VT-ESH)
Jaipur International airport, India
-/-
5/168
The aircraft overran the runway and the nose gear collapsed.
5 January
Air India
Touched down on soft ground to the left of runway 27 in fog with a visibility of about 200m, before receiving substantial damage when it veered further left and its port wing struck a tree. The aircraft had diverted
from Delhi, where poor visibility precluded landing, and it is understood to have had insufficient fuel on board to divert elsewhere from Jaipur. Runway 27 has a Cat 1 ILS.
10 January
Carson Air
Fairchild Metro (C-FJKK)
Regina airport, Saskatchewan,

Canada
The aircraft touched down about halfway along the runway in poor visibility with a 5kt tailwind and a contaminated surface. It overran the end by about 100m (328ft).
18 January
Aeronaves
McDonnell Douglas DC-9F (XAUGM)
Plan de Guadelupe airport, Mexico
Ilulissat airport, Greenland
-/3
3/12
The aircraft landed at night in poor visibility about two-thirds of the way along the runway and ran off the left side.
29 January
Air Greenland
DHC Dash 8-200 (OY-GRI)
The crew expected a crosswind on landing and checked the threshold wind frequently as they carried out their choice of an NDB approach to runway 07. On short final the wind was reported from 140 at 26kt,
gusting 39kt. On landing the left main gear failed an investigation later determined it was a stress failure. The aircraft swung left off the runway and down a slope to rocks, and the crew ordered an evacuation.
1 February
Garuda Indonesia
Boeing 737 (PK-GFW)
Juanda, Surabaya, Indonesia
-/-
6/104
TO
Tread from the aircrafts left outer main gear tyre was shed during the take-off run. At the destination, the crew carried out a fly-by with the gear down in front of the tower to see if damage was visible, then landed on
runway 28. During the landing roll the tyre failed and debris caused major damage to the left spoilers, thrust reverser, wing underside and aft fuselage.
1 February
Lion Air
Boeing 737-900 (PK-LFH)
Juanda-Surabaya airport, Indonesia -/5
7/215
The aircraft bounced four times during its landing on runway 28, also triggering the tailskid indicator, smashing the nosewheel and bursting a main gear tyre. The final touchdown registered nearly 4g and caused
fuselage wrinkling aft of the wing. The surface wind was reported to be 270 at 16kt
2 February
East Air
Airbus A320 (EY-623)
Kulob, Tajikistan
-/-
6/186
?/?
ER
Inbound from Moscow Domodedovo, the aircraft carried out a daytime approach in heavy snow. It overran the runway end into deep snow and suffered major damage.
13 February
Jetstar Asia
Airbus A320 (9V-JSN)
ER over Java, Indonesia
-/-
Unintentionally flew, at night, through volcanic ash cloud downwind of Mount Kelud, sustaining major damage to both engines. However, they continued to function. The aircraft landed safely at Jakarta.
17 February
Jet2
Boeing 737-800 (G-GDFC)
Funchal airport, Madeira, Portugal
-/-
7/175
The aircraft suffered windshear on short final approach to runway 05, owing to a variable crosswind from the left reported at 330 at 14kt, gusting to 24kt, caused by the fact that the runway is on the lee side of high
ground when the wind is from that direction. The captain persisted with the approach despite the fact that a high sink rate developed just before touchdown, and the aircraft bounced on landing. The aircraft came to
a halt safely, but suffered a tail-scrape and some fuselage deformation.
22 February
Travel Service Airlines
Boeing 737-800 (OK-TVT)
Lajes airport, Azores
-/-
6/164
The flight was from Prague, Czech Republic to Montego Bay, Jamaica, with a planned fuel stop at Lajes. The wind at Lajes was strong, gusting and variable with a crosswind from the right. The aircraft encountered severe windshear and turbulence in the last 5nm (9km) of the approach to runway 15. The aircraft touched down hard on the main and nose gear simultaneously, bounced and touched down a second time with a deceleration of 3.5g that caused damage to the undercarriage and fuselage frames.
25 February
Guicango
Embraer Brasilia (D2-FFZ)
Nr Lukapa airport, Angola
-/-
3/14
ER
Rex Features
A technical issue thought to be engine problems developed en route from Luanda to Dundo, forcing the crew to attempt a diversion and emergency landing on runway 18 at Lukapa. The crew lost directional
control on the wet runway, veered right and came to rest on rough ground, sustaining substantial damage.
On 10 August 2014, Sepahan Airlines sole airworthy IrAn-140-100 was involved in a fatal crash near Tehran Mehrabad airport
flightglobal.com
Rex Features
ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS
The crew of a Transasia ATR 72-500 called for a go-around at Taiwans Makung island airport while at an altitude of just 72ft
Date
Carrier
Location
13 March
US Airways
Airbus A320 (N113UW)
Philadelphia International airport,

USA
Injuries
-/2
5/149
TO
The aircraft was taking off from runway 27L bound for Fort Lauderdale when the crew, immediately after rotate, aborted the take-off because of indications of a No 1 engine fire. The nose gear touched down and
collapsed and the aircraft came to a halt partly off the runway. Two passengers were injured in the evacuation.
11 April
Kenya Airways
Embraer 190 (SY-FFC)
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
-/-
6/49
The aircraft ran into a heavy rain shower on short final approach to runway 23, and the captain took control from the co-pilot who had lost sight of the runway. On landing the aircraft veered right off the runway before
returning to it. The aircraft suffered major damage.
20 April
Blue Bird Aviation
Fokker 50 (5Y-VVJ)
Guriel landing strip, Somalia
Sachigo Lake airport, Ontario,

Canada
-/-
2/9
The aircraft landed long and ran off the end of the runway at high speed. The left wing failed and broke away.
24 April
Wasaya Airways
Beechcraft 1900 (C-FWXL)
The crew heard wind noise soon after take-off and suspected a door failure despite getting no warnings. When a crew member went to check it, the main cabin door popped open about 25cm and the door warning light came on. The crew elected to turn back and declared an emergency. On approach the door had opened fully, and it separated on landing.
8 May
Ariana Afghan Airlines
Boeing 737-400 (YA-PIB)
Kabul International airport,

Afghanistan
-/-
5/130
ER
The aircraft overran the end of runway 29 by about 300m, destroying the ILS localiser array. The aircraft encountered heavy rain on short final approach and the runway was wet.
10 May
IRS Airlines
Fokker 100 (5N-SIK)
Kwasi Posa, Nr Magaria, Nigeria
-/-
The aircraft was carrying out a post-maintenance (C-check) ferry flight from Bratislava, Slovakia to Kano, Nigeria. Shortly after waypoint GANLA on airway UA604, the crew reported an unspecified system problem that
appears to have affected navigation, because they got lost in a sandstorm. Fearing that they would run out of fuel, the crew force-landed on flat ground, and the right main landing gear and nosewheel collapsed.
7 July
Air Asia
Airbus A320 (9M-AQA)
Brunei International airport, Brunei
-/-
7/102
-/-
4/36
ER
The aircraft ran off the runway to the left and the engines suffered ingestion damage. There was light rain and 3,000m daylight visibility.
10 July
Precision Air
ATR 72 (5H-PWA)
Kilimanjaro airport, Tanzania
The No 2 engine failed in the cruise on a flight from Mwanza to Dar es Salaam, and the crew elected to divert to Kilimanjaro. The aircraft made a normal night touchdown on runway 09, but after selecting ground idle
on the No 1 engine the crew lost directional control and the aircraft ran off the runway to the left.
28 September Air Labrador
DHC Twin Otter (C-GKSN)
La Tabatiere airfield, Quebec,

Canada
-/-
2/17
The aircraft landed about halfway along the 540m (1,770ft) gravel runway in daylight and good visibility. Worried that he could not stop before the runway end, beyond which is a 20m drop, the captain turned the aircraft off the side, hitting a runway sign with the right propeller and impacting another obstruction with the right forward fuselage.
25 October
Biega Airways
Let L-410 (9Q-COT)
Shabunda, DR Congo
Edmonton International airport,

Canada
-/-
4/71
The aircraft landed more than 800m short of the runway in daylight VMC.
6 November
Jazz
Bombardier Dash 8 Q400

(C-GGBF)
The aircraft had suffered a right main gear tyre burst during take-off from Calgary for Grande Prairie, and the crew decided to divert to Edmonton. On touchdown the starboard main gear collapsed, the right propeller
hit the ground and blades penetrated the fuselage. The crew had moved passengers to seats away from the starboard propeller disc plane, so no-one was hurt.
4 December
Tropic Air
Cessna Caravan (V3-HHU)
Belize City airport, Belize
-/-
1/5
Overran the runway into the sea
flightglobal.com
AIRLINE SAFETY
NO SECOND CHANCE
The industry needs to make a radical shift in pilot training, to get ightcrews safely
in tune with modern airliner technology, but the authorities are dragging their feet
CORPORATE ACTION
Since this is a recognised global phenomenon,
several years ago, the UK-based Royal Aeronautical Society drew up a partnership with two
other international industry bodies to identify
what action was needed. Overseen by ICAO, the
RAeS joined forces with IATA and the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations and set up the IPTC. More recently, manufacturing industry body the International
Coordinating Council of Aerospace Industries
Associations (ICCAIA) has also joined the IPTC.
Before the formation of the IPTC, each of
these bodies was working individually on what
might be done to correct the mismatch between
traditionally trained pilots and state-of-the-art
ightdecks. The automation itself was not reckoned to be the problem it was making aeroplanes safer and more efcient. So the correction, according to logic, had to be at piloting
Rex Features
irlines and the worlds aviation authorities have been warned that if they
miss the opportunity to modernise
pilot training now, when the International Pilot Training Consortium (IPTC) and
ICAO have nished preparing the ground for
change, they may be stuck with 1950s-based
training regulations for the foreseeable future.
The industry has acknowledged that airline
pilot training desperately needs updating for the
modern piloting task, but national aviation authorities (NAA) are doing nothing to enable it.
In September 2013, a US Federal Aviation
Administration-led committee published a
study showing that pilot training needs radical
change if it is to prepare aviators for the specic
task of ying the latest generation of complex,
highly automated modern airliners safely.
In parallel, a cross-organisational expert
group called the IPTC was working to dene
the changes in pilot training philosophy that
would deliver the goods.
Based on operational incident and accident
data, the FAA-led study established that the ying task and navigational environment has
evolved with advancing technology, but training for the task has not evolved at all, so safety
was suffering. It concluded that pilots are sometimes proving unprepared for todays ightdeck
and air trafc management environments.
The IPTC was formed to bring together several groups working to modernise ightcrew education
level, on the grounds that pilots remain essential
components of a safely operated airliner.
ICAO, IATA, IFALPA, RAeS and ICCAIA together look like a formidable set of big guns to
train on what is, ostensibly, a simple problem:
to modernise and harmonise pilot training. The
IPTCs stated mandate is this: To improve the
safety, quality and efciency of commercial aviation by developing international agreement on
a common set of pilot training, instruction and
evaluation standards and processes.
Meanwhile a lot of work had already been
done through ICAO to determine what modern pilot training should look like. One of several results was the development of the competency-based training system that leads to
the multi-crew pilot licence (MPL).
What has transpired, however, is that the
industry and NAAs have proved to have such
deeply-embedded inertia, prejudice and re-
We will publish a report.

Please do not read that report
and do nothing about it
PETER BARRETT
Outgoing executive chairman, IPTC
sistance to change that broad-based action

still seems impossibly distant.
This has become so clear that, at the end of
the 2014 RAeS International Flight Crew
Training Conference (IFCTC) at its London
headquarters in September, the IPTCs outgoing executive chairman Peter Barrett effectively asked the participants whether they wanted to renew the consortiums researching and
campaigning mandate, or just give up.
As it happened, the conference renewed the
IPTCs mandate, but the work is still completely
unfunded and continues to be carried out voluntarily by industry people with busy day jobs.
IPTC has worked hard with ICAO to create a
series of updated training standards, but the resulting published ICAO standards and recommended practices (SARPs) on pilot training are
being comprehensively ignored in almost all
the organisations 192 signatory states. Speaking at the RAeS IFCTC, the director of ICAOs
air navigation bureau Nancy Graham said the
increased frequency of fatal accidents resulting
from loss of control in ight (LOC-I) is a major
focus for the organisation, which it believes is
one result of traditional pilot training being
mismatched with the modern ying task.
flightglobal.com
PHILOSOPHY
The situation today, Barrett observes, does

not represent a failure to agree that change is
needed; it is failure to implement the new
SARPs that would bring about the change.
But while Capt John Bent, chairman of the
IPTCs training practices workstream, laments
the failure of implementation, he has noted that
at least a broad global interest is being generated. It seems to be this faith that the word is getting through even if nothing is being implemented yet that led Barrett to propose a
three-year extension of the IPTC and its work
programme through 2017. He said to the IFCTC
as he closed it: We will publish a report [summing up the ndings of the IPTC workstreams
as reported to the conference]. Please do not
read that report and do nothing about it.
We have included a task in

our rulemaking programme
to address EBT and the ATQP
And the fact that neither EASA nor the

FAA has openly adopted ICAOs updated
PANS-TRG (procedures for air navigation services training) leaves the world rather short
of regulatory role models where pilot training
and licencing is concerned.
EASA
The industry has been warned that it must update a training regime with its roots in the 1950s
EVIDENCE
ICAOs PANS-TRG Doc 9868 addresses the
new system known as evidence-based training
(EBT) that an increasing number of top-line
carriers unwilling to wait for the regulators
are adopting for their crews recurrent training.
This is a system of monitoring real pilot performance in line operations via ight data monitoring (FDM) and line operation safety auditing
to identify where training is clearly needed,
and supplying it accordingly. However, these
airlines are based in countries where the NAA
is prepared to approve an alternative training
and qualication programme (ATQP).
EASA, however, says it was involved in one
of the IATA-led working subgroups in developing the EBT documents released by ICAO.
EASA says it does indeed plan action: We
have included a task in our rulemaking programme [RMT.0599] in order to address this
subject [EBT] and the subject of the ATQP.
It adds that the review will include the following items: EBT taking into account recent
ICAO amendments; ATQP taking into account experience gained in commercial air
transport aeroplane operations and extension
to CAT helicopter operations.
So at least EASA is on the case, even if implementation will take a few more years. The FAA
says it has already acted in the spirit of ICAO
Doc 9868, explaining: The FAA offered a voluntary competency-based training programme
to its operators starting in 1990 in the form of the
Advanced Qualication Program [US equivalent of ATQP]. At this point, 90% of pilots have
transitioned to this programme and 10% have
not. There is no need for the FAA to engage in
additional rule-making, as the AQP rules provides all the exibility offered by EBT. The inconsistency is that the old rules remain on the
books as well as the voluntary AQP.
The objective of the 2014 RAeS IFCTC was to
assess where the IPTCs work stands, and where
it is to go from here. The verdict at the meeting
was that the IPTC can show none of its planned
deliverables yet, but awareness of the need for
change is growing. For that reason, the conference decided, the IPTC should continue in existence but focus on implementation. There is
distress that most NAAs are not prepared to
push EBT and ATQP, and that petty politicking takes place in corners of the IPTC.
So the IPTC has had its life extended, but
only with a fragile sense of condence. As outgoing chairman Barrett observed as he closed
the show: I dont think this industry will get a
second chance if they dont take this one.
flightglobal.com
Rex Features
DIMINISHING
Barrett also announced that there will be a
meeting at ICAOs Montreal headquarters in
spring 2017 as the three-year mandate approaches its end, to review progress on implementing the IPTCs recommendations.
Meanwhile last year, the FAA-led study conrmed beyond argument that traditional pilot
training methods often leave pilots ill-prepared
for complex modern aircraft. The ultimate result
is, said the report, that pilots from time to time,
lose control of a perfectly serviceable aeroplane
with fatal consequences for everyone on board.
The FAA-led report, The operational use of
ight path management systems, was based on
extensive study by the performance-based operations rulemaking committee working with
Commercial Aviation Safety Teams ight deck
automation working group (FltDAWG). Its conclusions were entirely data-driven.
FltDAWG warns that in future operations, automatic systems will become even more dominant in pilots working lives, so it is vital to nd
quickly a way of enabling pilots to retain
their skills and situational awareness with the
advanced systems. The IPTC has, independently, come to the same conclusion.
But the FAA has now handed the problem
back to the industry to work out practical solutions for adapting pilot training in the USA to todays needs. It would rather that US carriers, having been provided with a stark picture of the
existing systems failings, come up with the answers because after all they and the worlds air
training organisations are supposedly the experts in what it takes to conduct safe operations.
The FAA may be leading global thinking
with this ground-breaking report, but it does not
intend to impose a solution on its own carriers,
let alone foreign ones. It is also one of numerous
NAAs that has not adopted ICAOs new training
SARPs. Neither has Europes EASA. In fact the
FAA is particularly badly placed at present as
far as global training harmonisation is concerned, because legislation passed recently by
Congress requiring a minimum 1,500h ying for
copilots ying commercial passenger aeroplanes means that the MPL training and licensing system, which is competency-based not
hours-based, would not work in the USA.
AIRLINE SAFETY
MISSING
LINK
Slow but steady progress is being made
towards the implementation of
deployable ight data recorders,
although reliability is still a concern
The wreckage of AF447 was found

quickly, but it took two more years
to locate the A330s black boxes
ommercial air transport aircraft will

soon be required to be equipped
with deployable ight data recorders, or ight tracking equipment, or
both. The only question is how soon.
ICAO has set up working groups to investigate the available technologies and make recommendations, and inuential organisations
like the Flight Safety Foundation have thrown
their weight behind the idea. Airbus now says
it is preparing to equip its large widebody
eet with deployable ight data and cockpit
voice recorder (FDR/CVR) systems, while
Boeing has already installed deployable recorders on at least three military eets, but so
far disagrees with its European competitor
that the technology is appropriate or safe for
use on commercial transport aircraft.

The June 2009 loss of Air France ight 447
in the South Atlantic led to renewed and
strident calls for deployable FDRs (DFDRs)
with embedded emergency locator transmitters (ELT), because it took two years of costly
Rex Features
The Air France A330 crashed in June 2009
searching to locate the wreckage of the Airbus

A330-200 on the seabed and recover the FDR/
CVR. When recovered, the recorders did,
however, yield up their data.
The delay in recovering important AF447
data and the expense of the two-year search to
nd the seabed wreckage led to the recentlyannounced Airbus decision to install a deployable FDR/CVR with a locator beacon on
future A350s and A380s. Speaking in Washington DC at the US National Transportation
Safety Boards forum on emerging ight data
and locator technology, Airbus head of security operations Pascal Andrei said that the airframer has been working with suppliers on
deployable recorders and technology will be
available very quickly, while admitting the
company has to complete some additional
studies. More recently, when Malaysia Airflightglobal.com
LOCATOR BEACONS
UNPRECEDENTED
Under the agreed ICAO framework, contributions by industry through an Aircraft Tracking
Task Force (ATTF) coordinated by IATA will
help address the near-term needs for ight
tracking. ICAO Council President Olumuyiwa Benard Aliu explains: Malaysia Airlines
Flight MH370 has been an unprecedented
event for aviation and we have responded
here in a similarly unprecedented manner.
While our ight safety work logically focuses
the majority of our energy and resources on
accident prevention, everyone in our sector
also deeply sympathises with the families of
this lost aircrafts passengers and crew.
But the slow Malaysian and international
reaction to the MH370 loss indicated a systemic failure of communications that ICAO
believes needs a remedy, even if mandatory
universal ight tracking and DFDRs are implemented. ICAO says: The meeting also recognised the challenges faced by states when
coordinating their search and rescue efforts
across national and regional areas of responsibility, stressing the usefulness of regularly run
practice exercises to identify procedural or
operational gaps.
ICAO has been calling for states to set up
contingency communications systems, and to
carry out joint exercises to prove them.
The highly inuential Flight Safety Foundation says it believes that a deployable ight
data recorder or triggered data transmission
should be required in addition to the standard cockpit voice recorder and ight data recorder already in all transport aircraft. The
DFDR should include an emergency locator
transmitter as well, it says, adding: By using
GPS technology, there would be no reason
that it wouldnt be found and retrieved very
quickly after an accident or incident.
DFDRs are not a new idea. The technology
for deployables not only exists, it is already in
use with some of air forces. As for tracking or
flightglobal.com
Rex Features
lines ight MH370 went missing over the Indian Ocean in March, there were concerted
calls for universal ight tracking, because the
idea that a modern airliner could just go missing and not be found however rare such an
event might be is deemed unacceptable by
an incredulous travelling public.
This point was quickly taken up by ICAO
and IATA. The Malaysia Boeing 777-200 has
still not been found, and there is no certainty it
will be. The aircrafts estimated position information at the time it would denitely have run
out of fuel is very imprecise. This contrasts
with the AF447 case where its last transmitted
position left a relatively small circle of uncertainty. Also, in the AF447 case, some oating
wreckage was quickly found, but in the Malaysia case no trace of anything associated with
the missing aircraft has yet been identied.
Airbus will install deployable FDR/CVRs with locator beacons on A350s and A380s in the future
surveillance technology for aircraft beyond
radar coverage, plenty of alternatives also exist
for automatic dependent surveillance-type systems reporting via satellite, but since tracking
is not considered essential for air trafc management (ATM) purposes in low-trafc oceanic
and wilderness areas, it has not been mandated
because of the communication costs involved.
Whatever system is chosen,

the authorities have to
consider whether it should be
designed to be tamper-proof
Meanwhile Boeing has installed similar systems on military aircraft, including the F/A-18
ghter and commercial derivatives such as the
E-4B airborne command post (747) and P-8A
maritime aircraft (737). That experience over
more than four decades has made Boeing
aware of potential reliability problems, especially with aircraft that lack ejection seats as an
activation system for the deployable recorder.
Commercial aircraft must instead rely on
sensors that can detect when a crash or midair collision is imminent, which can lead to
dangerous miscalculations, according to Mark
Smith, a Boeing air accident investigator. He
cites an example from the mid-1970s of an
E-4B inadvertently jettisoning a deployable
recorder over downtown Seattle on nal approach to Boeing Field. Designing a system
that yields as little as one inadvertent deployment in 10 million ights would be difcult
to achieve, Smith says. There are nearly 55
million commercial ights per year, implying
at least ve or six inadvertent recorder deployments annually. Smith adds: Im not

saying deployables are a bad idea, but theres
a balance of benet and consequence we need
to keep in mind.
New Jersey, USA-based Finmeccanica
company RDS Technologies is the manufacturer of this DFDR technology, which it calls
DFIRS. It is an integrated FDR and ELT that is
standard equipment on the Boeing F/A-18C,
D, E, and F model aircraft. Its built-in ELT,
says the company, provides immediate alert
of a downed aircraft, supporting prompt location of the crash site and the crew and recovery of the ight recorder module. The deployment of the DFIRS is triggered automatically
by an impact sensor or through activation of
the ejection seat, ejecting the device into the
aircraft slipstream where it ies away from
the aircraft on deployed aerofoils. It is designed to be impact resistant and to oat indenitely, says RDS.
RESPONSIBLE REPORTING
Airbus and Boeing have agreed on other areas
where ight tracking and data reporting via datalink can be improved. For example, aircraft
health monitoring systems can already send
updates at pre-selected intervals, such as every
10min or 30min using ACARS (aircraft communications addressing and reporting system).
If the aircraft turns off a ight-planned route or
exceeds predetermined limits, the reporting
updates can be accelerated to once every minute. Whereas an aircraft tracker is designed
only to transmit the aircrafts position and
identication throughout its ight, existing onboard FDR/CVR systems just contain the recordings of the aircrafts operational, engine
AIRLINE SAFETY
Frances BEA recommended use of deployable

FDRs with ELTs after the AF447 accident
company offers several products and backup
services. One of them, called AFIRS UpTime,
allows airlines to monitor and manage aircraft
operations anywhere in real time. In an emergency, a triggered data-streaming mode marketed as FLYHTStream automatically sends
FDR data and position information to designated sites on the ground in real-time.
A serious issue raised by what happened to
MH370 is this: whatever system is ultimately
chosen, the authorities have to consider
whether it should be designed to be tamperproof. This issue arises because, for unknown
reasons the MH370 aircrafts ACARS and secondary radar transponder stopped transmitting
Existing ELTs are located apart from the FDR and have a broadcasting life of only about 30 days
FLOATING CONCEPT
In May 2014, ICAO set up the ATTF to be coordinated by IATA, and in parallel with this,
the organisation aims to develop a concept of
operations covering how the new tracking
data would be shared, with whom, and under
what circumstances. It is all very well saying
ights must be trackable anywhere, but tracking could be carried out for malign as well as
benign reasons.
The Airbus DFDR concept involves deploying one of two FDR/CVR black boxes in
the event of a mid-air collision or impact with
the ground, one embedded and the other deployable. The deployed unit would include a
locator beacon, and be designed to oat if a
It is all very well saying

ights must be trackable, but
tracking could be carried out
for malign or benign reasons
Rex Features
HYBRID
The last signals from a standard ight tracking
system would help rescuers and investigators
nd an aircraft after an accident even if the aircrafts ELT failed, but it does not supply aircraft
operational and engineering data only the
FDR/CVR does that. There is, however, a hybrid system which can enable position tracking and also transmission of real-time aircraft
data via a datalink, like the well-established
ACARS can be set up to do. Canada-based
Flyht Aerospace Solutions offers such a hybrid
system. Under the brand-name FLYHT, the
not long after departure, but just before the aircraft turned away from its ight planned route.
The most widely-proposed theory for this is
that the act of switching off the signals and the
diversion from the ight plan was a deliberate
action by someone on board. But what ICAO
and the industry has to consider is whether the
inability of a crew to isolate any piece of electrical equipment is an unacceptable re risk,
especially in the light of the fact that deliberate
acts to harm aircraft and their passengers by
ying them to their doom are vanishingly rare.
Rex Features
and systems data, plus cockpit communication and ambient sound, to help investigators determine what happened in the event of
an accident. The position of a crashed aircraft
is not provided by a standard FDR, but by separate ELT embedded elsewhere in the aircraft.
Todays aircraft ELTs are activated by impact-caused deceleration to transmit an emergency signal that search teams can home in
on. If the ELTs fail (there are usually two),
there is a risk the aircraft and its data/voice
recorders will not be found or not for a long
time anyway. ELTs also have limited range, a
broadcasting life of about 30 days, and they
do not have sufcient power to provide an
above-water signal if the wreckage comes to
rest on a deep sea-bed.
In its recommendations in the AF447 nal
accident report, French accident investigation
agency BEA recommended the use of deployable FDRs with embedded ELTs so it would
never again take so long to nd and download
a black box recorder. A DFDR in the AF447
A330 would have been deployed either on
impact with the sea or triggered by other
agreed parameters. In any case, it would have
been designed to oat so its locator signal
would have been picked up by search teams.
crash occurs in water. In the case of the Yemenia crash in 2009 which involved impact
with the sea close to shore while the aircraft
was positioning to land at night a oating
locator beacon might have saved lives. One
passenger was found alive, but others may potentially have been saved too.
One of the Airbus suppliers at the US National Transport Safety Board forum, Honeywell vice-president of aerospace regulatory affairs Chris Benich, described how a deployable
recorder would work.
The system rst senses the start of a crash
sequence and releases the deployable recorder
from the aircraft. In a previous patent ling,
Airbus described the installation as a lower
panel in aft fuselage near the tail cone. If the
system lands on water, it is designed to oat
indenitely, with a locator beacon alerting
search crews of its presence. A purpose-built
DFDR also has the potential to address a chronic reliability problem for existing ELTs. Each
commercial aircraft is required to carry two,
but they often do not survive the crash. Airbus
statistics show that ELTs were activated in only
28% of reviewed incidents.
flightglobal.com
STRAIGHT&LEVEL
From yuckspeak to tales of yore, send your offcuts to murdo.morrison@ightglobal.com
Rex Features
When modesty
ruled at Qatar
Airline entrepreneurs are rarely
known for their modest dreams,
so Hamad Ali al-Thani must get
some award for understating the
potential of his creation.
Former Budgie scribe Ian
Goold recalls how the founder
of Qatar Airways told him in
1994 that the one-aircraft outt
was the national carrier, but
not a prestige airline. Rather, it
was a low-cost operation.
Of course, that was before the
appointment of Akbar Al Baker
two years later, and the rest is
history. Who would have
predicted then that the mighty
Gulf Air would be eclipsed
and the world of long-haul
aviation transformed by a
cocky start-up in Dubai, a ag
carrier with a eet of one and a
national airline that would not
even be named for almost
another decade.
A little less Convair-sation: Elviss favourite jet is up for sale
Beverley thrills
Our piece about the Blackburn
Beverley prompted Ray Neve to
add these recollections from
the types time with the RAF.
1. Its cruising speed was so
low that it was the only aircraft
in RAF service which suffered
birdstrikes on its trailing edges.
2. Pilots were forbidden to
spin the Beverley in case the
torque reaction with planet
Earth caused the latter to speed
up or slow down, depending on
the aircrafts spin direction.
Its now or never if you fancy

owning one of Elviss jets and
have around $10 million to
spare. Two private aircraft
belonging to the King a
Lockheed Jetstar called Hound
Dog II and a 1960 Convair 880,
Lisa Marie are up for auction.
Neither are airworthy and
have been on display at Elviss
former home, Graceland, for 30
years. But a failure to agree a
continuation of a revenuesharing lease with the visitor
attraction means the owners,
OKC Partnership, are ofoading
them. The Convairs last ight
was to take the former Mrs
Presley, Pricilla, from California
to Graceland for Elviss funeral
in 1977.
Yuckspeak #195
Strategically located in the
heart of the airport, Jewel is... a
world-class lifestyle destination
that will enable the Changi air
hub to capture passenger
mindshare, and strongly boost
Singapores appeal as a stopover
point for travellers.
= Were opening some shops.
fully familiar with French

bizjets and have a proven record
of the ability to count above
two. Touch.
Hat trick
Stuck for somewhere to lay your
pilots hat between ights?
Veteran aviator Aaron Rogers
believes he has the answer. His
HatPak cap case (below) allows
airline pilots, military personnel
and law ofcers to carry their
headgear with their luggage
without damage.
Most pilots, he says, stuff
their hats in with their clothes,
tuck them under their arm or
balance them on their suitcases,
with far from ideal results. He is
raising funds on Kickstarter to
bring his invention to market.
Dassault
Thanks to Rod Holdridge for

pointing out this Budgie Blues
a photograph of the Dassault
Falcon 8X (left) on our contents
page last week. A new vacancy
has arisen in the caption-writing
department, he suggests. The
successful candidate should be
I trust Adolf, in his mountain

vultures nest, had just exactly
the sort of
Christmas he
deserves. I hear
there was a tree
there. I should love to have
the decorating of it. How
about a coal(less) scuttle for
Adolf, a bladder of lard
covered with tinsel stars for
Goering, and for Goebbels a
clever little adaptation of the
lie detector.
Eyes on the prize

If a fat purse is the spice of
competition there should be
no reason why this
years Royal Aero
Club sporting
calendar should
not interest practically every
pilot in Britain. There is to be a
round-the-Isle of Man air race
with prize money totalling at
least 1,000 guineas.
Habsheim crash
The crash of an Air France
Airbus A320 at Habsheim on
24 June 1988 was
caused by the
crew putting
themselves in a
situation beyond their ability to
control fully, say investigators.
Must tri harder
flightglobal.com
That seaplanes could be of

some assistance in dealing
with mines has
long been thought
possible. Our
picture touches
upon one of the most
dastardly phases of the
present war, in which the
Prussian Huns have violated
every international law of
humanity and decency, under
the cloak of their wonderful
creation, Kultur.
Adolfs Christmas
Hound og
Falcon obvious, isnt it?
Minesweepers
100-YEAR ARCHIVE
Cap-ital idea or mixed bag?
Every issue of Flight

from 1909 onwards
can be viewed online at
ightglobal.com/archive
LETTERS
flight.international@flightglobal.com
FLIGHT
EDUCATION
We welcome your letters on

any aspect of the aerospace
industry.
Please write to: The Editor,
Flight International, Quadrant
House, The Quadrant, Sutton,
Surrey SM2 5AS, UK.
Or email ight.international@
ightglobal.com
Many people and much of the media hail Airbus for its new handson approach to flight training. Pilots never had any doubt that manual flying is what a pilot needs to do in an emergency. Especially in an
abnormal flight situation, automation and computerisation does not
help. It rather confuses the pilots rather slow brain.
Even software cannot be programmed for all possible situations
arising in such a quickly changing environment. The new fashion
of excessive computerisation made pilots lose their manual skills
and mental abilities. This led to many fatal crashes, and will continue to do so.
Again we learned through blood, sweat and tears that the cockpit
and the computerisation design needs to fit our brains capabilities
which includes manual skills based on personal experience in the
real environment.
You will see that the MPL [multi-crew pilot licence] will again produce different kinds of abnormal flight situations, if not crashes, as
again the brain will not get enough information in a simulator to
learn how to process certain feelings correctly.
Who believes that the feelings you have in a simulator during an
emergency are really the same as those you have at the point of
no return over the sea, on a dark night with bad weather all around
you? Many pilots, if they are honest, will agree that the first flight on
the real airplane after the simulator was very different in the way
your mind worked and coped with the situation.
It is time to accept that the training of pilots in modern cockpits
requires a completely new approach based on mental training, rather than on pure manual skills and some button-pushing.
Capt Awad Thomas Fakoussa
By email
INTERNATIONAL
The opinions on this page do not

necessarily represent those of the editor.
Flight International
cannot
letters
Letters
without a full
postalpublish
address
supwithout
name
andpublished.
address. Letters must
plied
may
not be
may
be nobemore
than 250
words in length.and
also
published
on flightglobal.com
must be no longer than 250 words.
Incompetence
behind AF447
Regarding AF447, two conclusions are incontrovertible. One:
the crash was 100% preventable
with even remotely capable pilots,
and two: it was probably the most
incompetently caused crash in
civil aviation history (rivalled perhaps only by the Aeroot Airbus
A300/310 where the captains
teenage son was at the controls).
As to the pitot tube malfunction, two facts have to be understood. First, it is virtually impossible for an A330 level at FL350
and at a xed power setting to
maintain Mach 0.82 cruise, to
overspeed.
Second, an A330 at FL350,
with the thrust levers retarded
and side-stick back pressure
generating a positive rate of
climb, will within a minute or
two run out of yable airspeed
and enter a stall.
At that altitude the KIAS must
be in the neighbourhood of 300 or
a little more, and if the clean conguration stall speed at MSL is
about 120kt, then at FL350 or
above and in a climb the plane
would likely stall at around 200
KIAS or a little less. That 100-150
In an emergency, its hands-on
KIAS bleed-off will occur very

quickly in a reduced to no-power
climb at that high altitude.
As for the captain, once in the
cockpit his situational awareness should have almost immediately encompassed three instrument readings: the ADI
would disclose the aircraft had a
nose-high attitude, the VVI
would show 1,000 fpm or more
of descent rate and the engine
thrust indicators would reveal
very low power settings.
These are the classic indications of a stall, and there was
more than adequate time and altitude to effect a full (and very
simply executed) recovery. Ergo,
the crash occurred due to a
failure of basic airmanship. What

a tragedy.
Chris Skillern
San Diego, USA
How can I help?

I am a retired pilot 31 years
with British Airways and 10
with other operators (because of
BAs age 55 retirement mandate).
I was a training captain and
learned my trade the hard way
no FMCS, no GPS, no CPDLC. Just
raw data VOR and ADF approaches, with the odd PRA thrown in
for good measure. It concerns me
that modern pilots do not have the
background experience to fall
back on when it all goes pear-
shaped. I watch these events

wishing that there was some
mechanism whereby people with
my sort of experience could feed
back into the current commercial
pilot environment some of the
seat of pants survival intuition
that I and my peers grew up with.
I have survived 20,000h of airline operations and would like to
help my young colleagues better
my record.
Dave Baker
By email
Missing trainers
I realise that Flightglobal has
great databases, but that does not
mean they are complete. I note
an omission in the training aircraft section of the Mexican air
force in your World Air Forces
directory (Flight International,
9-15 December 2014). There is
no mention of the Boeing-Stearman PT-13/PT-17s still operated
for basic training in Jalisco, with
about 10 aircraft still in daily use.
From reports these aircraft are
kept in tip-top condition.
John M Davis
Wichita, USA
Editors reply: Our annual directory is compiled using information from Flightglobals Ascend
Fleets and MiliCAS databases,
neither of which track piston- or
radial-engined basic/elementary
trainer types, such as the antiquated PT-13/PT-17 Stearman.
To download your free copy, visit
flightglobal.com/waf
Venting air
And the award goes to Flight
International for its support of oxymoronspeak in the form of persistent use of the term airframer
in every 2014 issue. The prize is a
giant trophy made of pure air.
Arthur Nilssen
Bergen, Norway
Build your career

7U\)OLJKWJOREDO7UDLQLQJVQHZVLWHIRUWKHIDVWHVW
URXWHWREXLOGLQJ\RXUDHURVSDFHDQGDYLDWLRQFDUHHU
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Ref: DACGO/Consultant/2014/1410
Date: 22-12-2014
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IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUMS

Head of Airfield
With over 600 staff, two million visitors a year and major attractions at five
branches (IWM London, IWM North, IWM Duxford, Churchill War Rooms
and HMS Belfast). IWM is proud of its reputation as a forward thinking group
of museums. IWM Duxford is Britains best preserved wartime fighter station
and a working airfield from which historic aircraft still fly.
Duxford Airfield holds a derogated ordinary licence, operating two runways
with approximately 20,000 movements a year, including GA, military,
training, pleasure flights (AOC/Public Transport Operation), extensive war
bird activity, air shows, flying events and ad hoc display practice. Duxford
Airfield is an Air Navigation Service Provider and has a team of Flight
Information Service Officers and a Fire Team.
This is a varied and challenging role, having at its heart responsibility for the
strategic development of Airfield services. You will take the lead in managing
IWM Duxfords relationship with key stakeholders including the Civil Aviation
Authority, partner organisations, the local community/district council and
emergency services, military aviation representatives and private companies
based at the airfield.
You will be assisted by a professional team together with contract staff who
provide support for air shows.
As a senior manager with significant relevant experience in a flight
operations or airfield management environment, you will have excellent
communication, budget management, organisational and leadership skills.
An interest in heritage aviation, and IWM broader areas of public and
professional interest, will be of value.
For a full job description and to apply please visit www.iwm.org.uk
The closing date for applications is Noon, Monday 26 January 2015
IWM is committed to a policy of Equal Opportunities
Charles Taylor Adjusting Aviation provides a wide range of claims, technical

and consultancy expertise to aviation insurers and their clients worldwide.
Due to continued growth and demand for our services, we invite applicants
with either previous adjusting experience and/or comprehensive Aerospace
engineering experience to apply for the following positions:
Aviation Insurance Surveyors

London and Dubai
Applicants will have a strong Aerospace engineering background with

technical and management experience of aircraft maintenance, structural
repairs and aircraft inspection on large commercial, business or general
aviation aircraft, ideally including helicopters. The holder of an EASA (or
equivalent) aircraft maintenance engineers licence, with proven experience
would be preferred. In addition, Pilot experience would also be useful, but
is not essential.
The Surveyor role involves considerable client liaison, demands first class
communication skills and a confident personality. Fluency in written English
is essential for the preparation of both technical and non-technical reports.
Also, the ability to speak a second language would be useful, as would
overseas work experience.
Previous adjusting experience is desirable, although not essential. Extensive
training will be provided to applicants new to the industry, in order to assist
their development in this challenging and rewarding occupation.
You will be based either in London or Dubai and must also be prepared to
travel overseas, often at short notice. The ability to work both as part of a
team and independently is essential.
For these positions we offer a competitive salary and benefits package,
which will be linked to the technical qualifications and experience of the
applicants.
To apply for a position, please email your CV and covering letter, together
with your current salary to recruitment@ctplc.com. Closing date for
applications is 26th January 2015.
Build your career

Try Flightglobal Trainings
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HUNDREDS OF JOBS @ flightglobal.com/jobs
Salary range:
44,537-50,397 per annum
Captains and Co-Pilots

Excellent salary and benets.
Lisbon and Porto, Portugal
NOT JUST FLYING BELOW IT

FOR LIVING UNDER THE SUN,
At easyJet, were all about making Europe accessible to more and more people. As part of our exciting
growth plans, Porto opens as our new Portuguese base, alongside Lisbon, in March 2015. And for
Captains and Co-Pilots already based there, or those thinking of a move to sunnier climes, this opens up
all sorts of amazing opportunities.
Were looking for both A320 type-rated and non type rated Captains and also talented Co-Pilots
to start on a fast-track programme to command in Portugal.
Operating our young Airbus eet and enjoying growth prospects that are unmatched in the industry, youll
help us deliver world-class service and operational excellence across our extensive European network.
Were looking for:
A320 Type-Rated Captains
Currently operating as Captain on A320 family
aircraft, with at least 5,000 total ying hours
and 1,000 total PIC hours (of which 500 are on
the A320).
Non-Type-Rated Captains
Currently operating as a Captain on aircraft above
50 Tonnes MTOW, with at least 6,000 total ying
hours and 2,000 total PIC hours (of which 1,000
are on aircraft above 50 Tonnes MTOW).
A320 Type Rated Co-pilots

With at least 4,000 total ying hours (of which
at least 1,000 are on Airbus y by wire aircraft).
Successful candidates will be considered for a
command position after 1 year (2 recurrent ight
sims) and completion of all aspects of the
command process.
Non-Type Rated Co-pilots

With at least 4,000 total ying hours (of which
3,000 are on aircraft above 40 Tonnes MTOW).
Successful candidates will be considered for a
command position after achieving 1,000 hours on
the Airbus, 2 recurrent ight sims and completion
of all aspects of the command process.
Choose a career like no other, with an airline like no other.

Visit careers.easyjet.com
Hello Tomorrow
Make the move that

moves you forward
Join Emirates as a pilot to enjoy unparalleled
professional stability and faster career
progression. With a eet of over 200 modern
aircraft and more than 280 on order, we are
one of the fastest growing and most protable
airlines in the world. To move up with us,
apply today.
Where could you be tomorrow?
emirates.com/pilots
Tax-free salary
Global network
Generous benets
Comprehensive insurance
RECRUITMENT
Coleg y Cymoedd
Lecturer in Electronic &

Avionic Engineering
Full Time
Salary - You will be salary assessed on qualifications
and experience 21,945 34,530
Based at our Nantgarw/Ystrad Mynach Campus
Start ASAP
The successful candidate will be able to teach Electronic/Avionic
Engineering both theory and practical, Electronics, Avionics,
Electronic Maintenance, Electronic Principles, Mathematics for
Engineers, Project Management and other associated
electronic/avionic engineering subjects up to HND level.
Ideally the candidate will have served a formal/recognised
apprenticeship in electronic/avionic maintenance engineering and in
the aerospace sector. It would also be desirable to either possess or
be working towards an appropriate teaching qualification.
A minimum qualification of a HND in Electronic/Avionic Engineering
is essential; however it is desirable that you possess a BEng/BSc in
Electronic/Avionic Engineering.
This vacancy can be viewed at:
http://www.cymoedd.ac.uk/about-us/jobs
The preferred company for Stress (Fatigue & DT), GFEM,

Composites), Aeronautical Research. Business units:
Contract staff, Workpackages, Innovation and New
Concepts, Aeronautical Research. www.bishop-gmbh.com
Contact bishop.peter@bishop-gmbh.com
Tel 0049-(0)40-866-258-10 Fax 0049-(0)40-866-258-20
Tel: +353 1 669 8224

Fax: +353 1 669 8201
Email:recruitment@sigmaaviationservices.com
recruitment@sigmaaviationservices.com
Email:
www.sigmaaviationservices.com
www.sigmaaviationservices.com
Call: +44 (0)1524 381 544

Email: info@safehands.aero
www.safehands.aero
youre in safe hands with us
46 | Flight International |13-19 January 2015
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ightglobal.com
WORKING WEEK
WORK EXPERIENCE ANDREY STEPANYUK
Domodedovo does the business

What are your duties?
As with any general manager I am
responsible for the companys operation. Business jet ground service is a complex living organism
which consists of different components. These are production,
economical and organisational issues, as well as communications
with the base airport.
Why is Domodedovo an ideal
destination for business jets?
Moscow Domodedovo airport is
Russias major hub in terms of
passenger trafc. However, business aviation is comfortably established and developing here,
despite airline activity, and does
not interfere with its main trafc.
The point is that unlike the other
Moscow airports, there is no priority here for special ights
presidential and governmental
and neither does national ag
carrier Aeroot get special treatment. So our clients do not face
problems getting slots and are
not left waiting to take off or
land. The Domodedovo Business
Aviation Centre also offers full
xed-base operator services at a
high standard. We have just conducted a feasibility study with
the airport for the reconstruction
of the centre with a new terminal
and additional hangars.
Did you always want a career
working in aviation?
Both my parents are aviation engineers, so my career choice was
never in doubt. I am an aviation
engines specialist, but unfortunately I have never worked as an
engineer. Due to the dramatic
changes in our country in the
Sfera Jet
A trained engineer, Andrey Stepanyuk runs the private terminal at one of Moscows big two airports, as well as
an aircraft charter and management company, and has high hopes for Russias young corporate aviation sector
Stepanyuk founded charter and management company Sfera Jet in 2005

early 1990s, engineers were not
widely in demand. However, it
gave me a chance to pass all the
necessary civil aviation grades,
from apron personnel to top
management. I joined the business aviation world in 2005
when I founded charter and
management company Sfera Jet,
of which I am the director general. The Domodedovo Business
Aviation Centre owns Sfera Jet,
which operates Gulfstream and
Embraer business jets.
Is the industry supporting the
growth of business aviation?
Sfera Jet, along with more than
100 other companies, are members of the Russian United Business Aviation Association, which
is developing into a strong and
efcient lobbyist for the industry.
Since 2009 its membership has
While demand is
strong, the country
lacks infrastructure
such as airports to
support general
aviation aircraft
grown vefold, and it has successfully fought to remove duties
on imported aircraft under 20t
maximum take-off weight. It
would be fair to say that Russias
business aviation industry is still
in its infancy. While the eet is
growing and demand is strong,
the country still lacks the infrastructure such as airports to
support general aviation aircraft
and their passengers. We do not
have a critical mass of general

aviation clients yet.
How can the Moscow help?
Though these are early days for
the industry, I can assure you that
here in Russia business aviation
will become as highly developed
as the USA in due course. I am a
market participant, so I cannot advise on any changes that can be
made by the government. However, in my opinion we need to harmonise our national aviation regulations with the other
internationally recognised systems. There is no business jet production here and maintenance
provision is limited and insufcient. To help improve and develop the countrys business aviation
industry, there needs to be more
Russian aircraft owners and a
much stronger charter industry.
We can also help to improve the
current situation. We plan, for example, to concentrate business jet
maintenance in one place to reduce the cost of services and create new qualied jobs. The
Domodedovo Business Aviation
Centre lls this niche. As the market grows and becomes more mature, we can take new business
and move on to the next stage of
development. Q
Check out our listings of the
latest jobs in aviation online at
ightglobal.com/jobs
If you would like to feature in

Working Week, or you know
someone who does, email your
pitch to kate.sarseld@
ightglobal.com
Build your career

7U\)OLJKWJOREDO7UDLQLQJVQHZVLWHIRUWKHIDVWHVW
URXWHWREXLOGLQJ\RXUDHURVSDFHDQGDYLDWLRQFDUHHU
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AN ICON JUST GOT LARGER
THE NEW NAVITIMER 46 mm

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