Concerns over the potential spread of radiation contamination in Japan have led to the Maritime Authority of Jamaica issuing a warning for operators of all Jamaican flag vessels to maintain a distance of at least 50 miles from the Fukushima nuclear facility.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) announced on 22nd March the completion of an investigation into a ‘weight and balance’ event two years before.

Tropical cyclone names – Two tropical cyclone names in the Atlantic were retired from the official name rotation by the World Meteorological Organization’s hurricane committee because of the deaths and damage they caused in 2010. This committee issues the potential names for tropical cyclones to be used every six years for both the Atlantic and eastern North Pacific basins.

Tsunamis – In the wake of Japan’s tsunami disaster, NOAA has urged Americans who live and vacation at the coast to take the threat of tsunamis seriously. With more coastline than any other country and proximity to several major fault lines, the Pacific, Atlantic, Gulf and Caribbean coasts of the United States are vulnerable to tsunamis.

NOAA’s Arctic Plan – NOAA explained on 16th March how it will concentrate scientific, service, and stewardship efforts in the Arctic when it released its first ever Arctic Vision and Strategy.

The National Transportation Safety Board announced on 24th March that it had made a recommendation to the Federal Aviation Administration to prohibit air traffic controllers from providing supervisory oversight while performing operational air traffic duties.

Final Australian C-17 returns from Japan

The remaining Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster providing support to relief efforts in Japan under Operation PACIFIC ASSIST was due to return home on 25th March following nearly two weeks of humanitarian assistance to earthquake and tsunami affected regions.

Operational event, Darwin Aerodrome On 17th December 2008, a Boeing 737-4MO aircraft made a significant diversion around weather at night while en route to Darwin, Northern Territory from Denpasar, Indonesia. The aircraft was cleared to conduct the runway 11 VHF omnidirectional radio range (VOR) approach via the initial approach fix NASUX. After the weather diversion, it was more convenient for the flight crew to make a pilot intercept of the 285 radial from the VOR but there was a period of misunderstanding as a result of a breakdown in the application of standard radiotelephony readbacks.

Stickshaker activation, Alice Springs On 18th September 2008, a Boeing 717-200 was being operated on a scheduled passenger flight from Cairns, Queensland to Alice Springs, Northern Territory. During the manually-flown visual approach by the pilot in command to runway 30 at Alice Springs aerodrome, the stickshaker activated. The pilot flying lowered the nose while continuing the turn onto final. The stickshaker activated again before the flight crew stabilised the approach to within the operator’s criteria and landed without further incident.

The National Transportation Safety Board made the following recommendations to the (US) Federal Aviation Administration on 2nd March: Perform a technical review of Airport Surface Detection Equipment-Model X to determine if the capability exists systemwide to detect improper operations such as landings on taxiways. (A-11-12)

On 11th March the NTSB issued a Safety Alert to warn pilots of lowflying aircraft about the dangers associated with unmarked towers built to record weather observations.

EMSA News

• Tracking ships from space: ESA and EMSA SAT-AIS initiative
• EU agencies exhibit
• EMSA studies Ro-Pax stability
• Ensuring polluters pay: CleanSeaNet legal workshop
• US Coast Guard LRIT-IDE team visits EMSA
• On the EMSA website

CANSO, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, announced plans in mid-March to support a global approach to calculating fuel and CO2 savings from ATM operational improvements. CANSO will work with ICAO, in rolling out the ICAO Fuel Savings Estimation Tool (IFSET) among the world’s air navigation service providers.

The General Lighthouse Authorities of the UK and Ireland (GLAs) fully support the findings of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s paper on the dangers of heavy dependency on GPS, discussed on 10th March by Professor Martyn Thomas at the 2011 GNSS Interference, Detection and Monitoring Conference.

Over the last few years, the GLAs have conducted two GPS jamming trials to investigate and demonstrate the effects of GPS failure on the maritime industry, which has an enormous reliance on GPS for positioning, navigation and timing information.

Society may already be dangerously over-reliant on satellite radio navigation systems like GPS, the Royal Academy of Engineering warned in a report published on 8th March. The range of applications using the technology is now so broad that, without adequate independent backup, signal failure or interference could potentially affect safety systems and other critical parts of the economy.

Related: GPS vulnerabilities and the benefits of eLoran.

In response to the recent earthquake and tsunami that brought devastation to Japan and the Pacific Rim, exactEarth announced on 12th March that it is offering its data service free of charge for the next two weeks to any competent maritime authority wishing to have access to their vessels anywhere in the Pacific Rim.

IFALPA’s safety bulletin on Haneda operations.

While Tokyo benefits from the services of two airports Narita (RJAA) and Haneda (RJTT), Haneda’s relative proximity to downtown Tokyo has meant that demand for growth at this airport has been the greater of the two. This demand was further enhanced with the re-opening of the airport to overseas operators.

Accordingly, in 2008, it was announced that capacity at Tokyo Haneda would be boosted by the construction of a fourth runway at the airport.

Related: IFALPA’s safety bulletin.

Global shipping chiefs called upon the world to help secure the release of hundreds of innocent seafarers snatched by Somali pirates, it was reported from London on 1st March.

The Round Table of International Shipping Associations comprises BIMCO, ICS/ISF, INTERCARGO and INTERTANKO and has embarked on a major campaign to encourage over a million people to heap pressure on their national governments to crackdown on piracy.

The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee published its report on 2nd March into studies of last year’s volcanic ash occurrence which limited air traffic over much of north west Europe. Entitled “Too little, too late” it is apparent that the British Government left scientific advice to last minute in the volcanic ash emergency, it was concluded by the Members of Parliament who comprised the Committee.

It was announced from Northrop Grumman Corporation on 1st March that it had been selected to supply bridge navigation systems for nine new mid-shore patrol vessels to be built for the Canadian Coast Guard.

CANSO, the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation, announced on 2nd March the appointment of Robert Hutchison as Director of Communications and Marketing. He took up his appointment the day before reporting to Director General Graham Lake.

On 2nd March the EGNOS Safety-of-Life signal was formally declared available to aviation, according to a report from the European Space Agency (ESA). For the first time, space-based navigation signals have become officially usable for the critical task of vertically guiding aircraft during landing approaches.

It was announced from Apeldoorn in The Netherlands on 2nd March that HITT NV, supplier of traffic management, hydrographic and navigation systems for aviation and shipping were in exclusive discussions with the owners of IVS 3D with the objective to merge their activities with the hydrographic division of HITT.

Within the Action Plan to promote this year’s World Maritime Day theme ?
Piracy: Orchestrating the Response, a meeting took place at IMO Headquarters on
17th February between IMO Secretary-General Admiral Efthimios E. Mitropoulos
and industry and seafarer representatives. All re-iterated the need for urgent and co-ordinated action from Governments, the shipping industry and the maritime community to address the escalating crisis of kidnap and ransom of seafarers off the coast of Somalia, in the Gulf of Aden, in the Arabian Sea and in the western Indian Ocean.

The International Arctic Science Committee (IASC) announced in late February that the IASC Medal for 2011 will be awarded to Professor Martin Jakobsson.

Martin Jakobsson represents a new generation of Arctic scientists for whom multinational and cross-disciplinary science comes naturally. His view that data should be open and accessible for all research is part of his success as illustrated by the wide use of the International Bathymetric Chart of the Arctic Ocean (IBCAO). This chart is fundamental to understanding of the Arctic, and has been cited in several thousand publications in areas such as oceanography, tectonics and palaeo-climate.

The International Union of Marine Insurance (IUMI) has welcomed the announcement by the International Chamber of Shipping (an affiliate member
of IUMI) that it is now taking a more neutral position on the use of private armed security personnel on board ships to protect them from pirates. This is precisely the stance adopted by IUMI, which announced in January that it was up to individual insurers whether to provide cover for ships and operators if private armed guards were employed on board.

At 1153 Western Standard Time on 3rd October 2009, the pilot of an Air Tractor Inc. 502 aircraft, registered VH-ODP, took off from an agricultural airstrip on a property about 5 km north-east of Wickepin, Western Australia to conduct agricultural spraying operations.

A short time later, the owner of the property discovered the wreckage of
the aircraft, which had impacted the ground in an inverted attitude, fatally
injuring the pilot.

The investigation did not identify any organisational or systemic issues
that might adversely affect the future safety of aviation operations.

The Brussels-based European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation Organisation (EUROCONTROL) announced early in February that in the year since it was signed, PENS – the Pan European Network Services Services – initiative has achieved two major milestones.

The first milestone has seen all European Air Database (EAD) services migrated from a dedicated IP network to PENS.

The second important milestone achieved at the end of 2010 was the agreement to create a dedicated PENS infrastructure to support the validation of Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR).