Air traffic control incidents – On 22nd April the (US) National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) released preliminary reports on two air traffic control incident investigations.

NTSB investigation into Lubbock, Texas crash – On 22nd April NTSB announced that it will hold a public Board meeting on its investigation into an accident in which a cargo airplane crashed on approach to landing in Lubbock, Texas.

NTSB and a 2010 plane crash involving former Senator Stevens – As part of its continuing investigation into the 9th August, 2010 aviation accident in Alaska, NTSB announced on 21st April that it had made the accident docket available to the public.

Annual aviation statistics for 2010
The safety of civil aviation in the United States continued to make incremental
improvements across most industry segments in 2010, based on the preliminary
aviation accident statistics released on 20th April by the NTSB.

UIMI is the International Union of Marine Insurance and currently has 55
national associations as members.

Major casualties at sea continue at a disturbing level, marine insurers are
warning. The number of incidents reported in 2010 followed the negative trend of the previous four years, IUMI reports in its substantial annual statistical exercise covering vessels over 500 gt issued on 23rd April. According to the IUMI communiqué there have been 623 serious losses reported to date for 2010, a similar figure to 2009. This means that 2010 joins the five worst vessel loss years in the last 17.

RAIL TRAINING – The 1st UIC World Congress on Rail Training was successfully held in Madrid. Some 170 delegates representing 34 countries from all continents attended this first UIC congress dedicated to rail training and educational issues, among them heads of railway human resources departments, railway training centres and academies, consultancies, universities, national rail safety agencies, regulatory authorities and railway manufacturers.

WORLD BANK TRANSPORT FORUM 2011 – On 29th March UIC was given the opportunity to provide its railway input to the Transport Forum organised by the World Bank from 28th to 31st March in Washington D.C. on the theme of 50 years of Innovation in Transport: Achievements and Future Challenges.

On 31st March Senator The Hon. David Feeney MP., Parliamentary Secretary for Defence, celebrated the 90th anniversary of the formation of the Royal Australian Air Force when he attended a reception at Point Cook Officers’ Mess. Senator Feeney toured a display of historic aircraft for Air Force’s Air Pilgrimage. He remarked on the advances in capability and the achievements of the RAAF over the past 90 years. The reception had the theme: ‘tradition, innovation, evolution’.

IMO’s Secretary-General Admiral Efthimios E. Mitropoulos, has expressed his
profound sadness for the reported drowning of more than 200 migrants when their
vessel capsized in the Mediterranean in the early hours of 6th April.

He acknowledged the role of the Italian Coast Guard in rescuing 53 persons.

Australia’s Department of Defence announced that the Australian command of coalition maritime operations in support of counter-terrorism operations in the Gulf region of the Middle East has passed to the French Navy, it was reported from Canberra on 6th April.

Commodore Greg Sammut of the Royal Australian Navy handed over command of Combined Task Force 150 (CTF 150) to Rear-Admiral Jean-Louis Kerignard of the French Navy on 4th April at a ceremony in Bahrain.

Safety Recommendations – On 29th March the (US) National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) announced that it had made a number of recommendations to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

Non-responsive airplane – On 29th March NTSB reported that it was investigating an incident involving a Southwest Airlines airplane that was requested to veer off course by Air Traffic Control to view into the cockpit of a general aviation airplane that had been out of radio communication.

Airliner fuselage rupture – On 2nd April the NTSB announced it was launching a Go Team to investigate an in-flight fuselage rupture that occurred that day on a Southwest Airline Boeing 737 aircraft (N632SW).

According to a report from ICAO in Montreal on 1st April radioactive material from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant is gradually spreading outside Japan into the global atmosphere but at extremely low concentrations that do not present health or transportation safety hazards, according to the United Nations organizations closely monitoring the situation.

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has called on the US government to reinforce the competitiveness of the US air transport industry with strategic long-term thinking. In co-operation with the industry, IATA urged the US to accelerate NextGen implementation, renew its focus on liberalization, revise proposals for passenger rights legislation and address the rising cost of security, it was reported from New York on 31st March.

As part of its vision of ‘making every flight a safe flight’ BALPA’s National
Executive Council has established a new position of Head of Safety and Security
and announce at the end of February that Dr Rob Hunter has been appointed to the
post.

Captain Mark Searle, Chairman of BALPA, said “The creation of the new post
reflects a concern that the industry is taking safety for granted. Investing in the position is a sign of the ambition of BALPA to make a difference. It is being created at a time of great change – in regulation, in process and in the workload of flight crew.”

By the deadline of 31st March 2011, six candidates had been nominated by their
Governments for the position of Secretary-General of the International Maritime
Organization (IMO).

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.

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.

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

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.

On 24th March the National Transportation Safety Board opened an investigation into an air traffic control service interruption incident that occurred early on the morning of 23rd March at Washington Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) in
Arlington, Virginia.

Junior officers in the Royal Australian Navy will learn to pilot the next generation of warships, in an upgraded A$10million training facility at HMAS Watson, Sydney, which was due to be commissioned on 25th March.

International exercise for the Hercules – A contingent of 15 Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) personnel journeyed to the Arctic Circle for an international exercise focused on the C-130J Hercules transport aircraft.

Exercise COMBINED STRENGTH 2011 was conducted at Bod? Air Force Base in Norway from 19th to 25th March. The exercise was open to countries that operate C-130J aircraft and this year featured participants from Denmark, Australia and the host nation, Norway.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

IFALPA’s safety bulletin on Haneda operations.