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54618®Flight Safety iss 97 4/12/14 14:55 Page 1 ISSUE 97 WINTER 14 ON COMMERCIAL AVIATION SAFETY The official publication of the United Kingdom Flight Safety Committee ISSN 1355-1523 54618®Flight Safety iss 97 4/12/14 14:55 Page 2 Contents The Official Publication of THE UNITED KINGDOM FLIGHT SAFETY COMMITTEE ISSN: 1355-1523 WINTER 2014 FOCUS is a quarterly subscription journal devoted Editorial 1 to the promotion of best practises in aviation safety. It includes articles, either original or reprinted from other sources, related to safety issues throughout all areas of air transport Chairman’s Column 3 operations. Besides providing information on safety related matters, FOCUS aims to promote debate and improve networking within the industry. It must be emphasised that FOCUS is not intended as a substitute for regulatory information or Reducing Runway Landing Overruns 4 company publications and procedures. by Marisa Jenkins and Captain Robert F. Aaron Editorial Office: The Graham Suite, Fairoaks Airport, Chobham, Woking, Surrey. GU24 8HU Tel: 01276 855193 Fax: 01276 855195 Third Country Operators – New rules enter into force for Non-EU 9 e-mail: [email protected] Commercial Air Transport Operators Flying into the European Union Web Site: www.ukfsc.co.uk Office Hours: 0900 - 1630 Monday - Friday by Christopher Smith Advertisement Sales Office: UKFSC The Graham Suite, Fairoaks Airport, Chobham, Operations within a Joint Forward Air Control Training and Woking, Surrey GU24 8HU Tel: 01276 855193 Fax: 01276 855195 Standardisation Unit (JFACTSU) Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) 10 email: [email protected] by Flight Lieutenant J Meadows Web Site: www.ukfsc.co.uk Office Hours: 0900 - 1630 Monday - Friday Printed by: Woking Print & Publicity Ltd Cognitive Decline 11 The Print Works, St. Johns Lye, St. Johns, by Peter V. Agur Jr Woking, Surrey GU21 1RS Tel: 01483 884884 Fax: 01483 884880 e-mail: [email protected] Web: www.wokingprint.com Fedex MD-11 Landing Accident, Tokyo Narita, 23 March 2009 15 FOCUS is produced solely for the purpose of by Dai Whittingham improving flight safety and, unless copyright is indicated, articles may be reproduced providing that the source of material is acknowledged. Opinions expressed by individual authors or in Understanding the new Widespread Fatigue Damage Rule 18 advertisements appearing in FOCUS are those of by Amos W. Hoggard and Stephen R. Johnson the author or advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the views and endorsements of this journal, the editor or the UK Flight Safety Committee. Members List 24 While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, FOCUS accepts no responsibility for any errors or omissions in the information, or its consequences. Specialist advice should always be sought in relation to any particular circumstances. Front Cover Picture: London’s Air Ambulance at Tower Bridge focus winter 14 54618®Flight Safety iss 97 4/12/14 14:55 Page 3 EDITORIAL Safety, Security and Stability by Dai Whittingham, Chief Executive UKFSC resulting from our inability to track the s 2014 draws to a close it is worth security question, an in-flight emergency is aircraft in flight or locate the wreckage Anoting that this year is likely to be clearly a safety issue whereas deliberate thereafter. On the latter point, ICAO is remembered for all the wrong reasons. We intervention would, at first sight, be a security already taking action on improvements to have seen a wide-body aircraft vanish matter. Or is it really such a simple division? crash position indicators and underwater without trace and another unbelievably Consider for a moment a fire that is started locator beacons as a result of the AF447 hacked out of the sky by a surface-to-air deliberately. It is still a fire and must be dealt experience, and EASA is accelerating work to missile, both with significant loss of life, and with like any other emergency situation but enshrine the new standards in EU law. Mental we have seen operations into a developed the cause arguably owes more to security health is, so far as our industry is concerned, a nation temporarily suspended because of than to safety, whatever the safety outcome. hidden problem. So is it a major problem? the threat from unguided rockets. And it is In February this year someone started 5 doubly unfortunate that both aircraft losses separate fires in passenger toilets on board an The available statistics on mental health in affected the same operator. Our friends at Etihad B777 routing from Australia to the the UK suggest 1 in 4 of the adult population Malaysia Airlines of course have our UAE, resulting in the captain diverting to will be affected by a mental disorder at some sympathies for the loss of colleagues and Jakarta. The flight continued after matches stage in any given year. At any one time, friends but spare a thought also for those and lighters had been confiscated from all around 15% of the population is affected faced with the challenge of leading and passengers and crew but the culprit has yet to (because some disorders can be seasonal). managing in an attempt to get on with the be identified. Ironically, the early detection of And of course we need to remember that job at hand, namely flying and maintaining the fires was a result of measures to prevent people entering aviation are a representative a viable business. passengers from smoking in flight – without the prohibition on smoking there would sample of the general population. Flight crew The downing of MH17 will resonate through perhaps have been no need to install smoke personalities tend to be stable, which may the industry for many years to come. While detectors in every toilet compartment - an provide an element of protection, but it would there may be persistent arguments about unintended but happy consequence of an un- be quite reasonable to assume that a who fired what from where, and why, there related health measure. proportion of the current crew population seems to be little doubt that the aircraft was may be suffering, or have suffered, from a serviceable and being operated safely before However, in 2002 a passenger succeeded in mental illness of some description. it became a casualty of events in the Ukraine. bringing down a China Northern Airlines MD- There will certainly be continuing questions 82 by starting a fire at his seat with petrol he Medical professionals – the only people about the operator’s decision to route probably smuggled on board in water bottles. qualified to properly diagnose mental illness - through an area of known conflict, though The passenger had taken out 7 life insurance divide symptoms into 2 main groups: neurotic few would have believed that a sophisticated policies shortly before travelling; his and psychotic. Neurotic symptoms can be military weapons system would be used to successful suicide also cost the lives of 111 considered as extreme forms of normal attack a third-party civilian platform. The innocent people who were unfortunate psychological responses such as depression, problems of determining safe over-flight were enough to have been on the same flight. So, anxiety and panic, whereas psychotic discussed more fully in the last edition of security then, unless failure to manage symptoms are those that interfere with a FOCUS, but we can probably agree that the security-related fire, smoke and fumes or person’s perception of reality, such as issue with MH17 was one of security rather damage can be attributed to poor training or delusions, paranoia and hallucinations. than safety. Or was it? Are security and safety weak design, in which case it becomes a Psychotic symptoms are often associated separable? safety issue again. with the more severe mental illnesses, but neurotic disorders can themselves be severe. Turning to MH370, unless and until the But the deliberate setting of fires in flight or aircraft is located we have no real prospect of suicidal actions on the part of flight crew or ‘Depression’ is used to describe a range of determining whether its loss was due to one passengers are actually a manifestation of moods, ranging from low spirits to more of the many postulated emergency scenarios, mental health problems. If, as some have severe mood problems that interfere with such as fire and fumes or depressurisation and already postulated, the loss of MH370 is everyday life. A depressive episode is hypoxia, or whether it was the result of a eventually attributed to the mental health of diagnosed if at least two out of three core deliberate act by a crew member or someone one of the flight crew, the questions that arise symptoms have been experienced for most of else on board. Returning to our safety versus are as significant for the industry as those the day, nearly every day, for at least two focus winter 14 1 54618®Flight Safety iss 97 4/12/14 14:55 Page 4 EDITORIAL weeks. These core symptoms are: low mood; openly and unashamedly about his PTSD Aviation in all its forms will always carry an fatigue or lack of energy; and lack of interest experience. His message to the audience was element of risk and we should not forget that. or enjoyment in life. A depressive episode simple: if your colleagues discuss mental The move to performance-based regulation may be classed as mild, moderate or severe, health problems such as PTSD, anxiety or means that in future there will be a much depending on the number and intensity of depression, or even admit to some of the greater requirement for operators to identify associated symptoms, such as sleep symptoms, listen to them and believe them.