36499®Flight Safety Iss 73 25/3/09 11:56 Page 2

36499®Flight Safety iss 73 25/3/09 11:56 Page 1 ISSUE 73 WINTER 08 ON COMMERCIAL AVIATION SAFETY The official publication of the United Kingdom Flight Safety Committee ISSN 1355-1523 36499®Flight Safety iss 73 25/3/09 11:56 Page 2 goodbye RIS and RAS from 12 March 2009 the UK’s Air Traffic Services Outside Controlled Airspace change. You can get find full details and an interactive tutorial guide to the new services at www.airspacesafety.com UK CAA licensed commercial pilots and controllers have been sent a CD guide in the post and private pilots’ CDs are being despatched in January 09. (MoD staff will receive details direct from the MoD) in the meantime the existing ATC services outside controlled airspace remain available. The Airspace & Safety Initiative (ASI) is a joint CAA,NATS,AOA,GA and MoD effort to investigate and tackle the major safety risks in UK airspace. 36499®Flight Safety iss 73 25/3/09 11:56 Page 3 Contents The Official Publication of THE UNITED KINGDOM FLIGHT SAFETY COMMITTEE ISSN: 1355-1523 WINTER 2008 FOCUS is a quarterly subscription journal devoted Editorial 2 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 operations. Besides providing information on safety Chairman’s Column 3 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 company publications and procedures. Fighting the War on Maintenance Error 4 by Squadron Leader John Franklin MBE RAF DACS S02 Eng FW Editorial Office: The Graham Suite, Fairoaks Airport, Chobham, Woking, Surrey. GU24 8HX Tel: 01276 855193 Fax: 01276 855195 e-mail: admin@ukfsc.co.uk Communication Error 6 Web Site: www.ukfsc.co.uk Office Hours: 0900 - 1630 Monday - Friday by Ross James MacDonald, ATC Watch Manager, Gatwick Airport Advertisement Sales Office: UKFSC The Graham Suite, Fairoaks Airport, Chobham, Clear Air Turbulence 8 Woking, Surrey GU24 8HX Tel: 01276 855193 Fax: 01276 855195 by Jim Galvin, World Area Forecast Centre Forecaster email: admin@ukfsc.co.uk Web Site: www.ukfsc.co.uk Office Hours: 0900 - 1630 Monday - Friday Printed by: The Operation & Interpretation of Weather Radar 11 Woking Print & Publicity Ltd by Ratan Khatwa PhD FRAeS, Honeywell Aerospace, Seattle, USA The Print Works, St. Johns Lye, St. Johns, Woking, Surrey GU21 1RS Tel: 01483 884884 Fax: 01483 884880 e-mail: sales@wokingprint.com Web: www.wokingprint.com Members List 16 FOCUS is produced solely for the purpose of improving flight safety and, unless copyright is indicated, articles may be reproduced providing that the source of material is acknowledged. Air France Runway Overrun – TEM Analysis 18 Opinions expressed by individual authors or in by Peter Simpson, Manager Air Safety advertisements appearing in FOCUS are those of the author or advertiser and do not necessarily reflect the views and endorsements of this journal, the editor or the UK Flight Safety Committee. Wind Reports – Not the Full Story 23 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. Front Cover Picture: Photograph by Mike Moores. Specialist advice should always be sought in British Airways B747-400 landing on Runway 27 left at London Heathrow Airport, immediately before relation to any particular circumstances. the inaugural Airbus A380 arrival. focus winter 08 1 36499®Flight Safety iss 73 25/3/09 11:56 Page 4 EDITORIAL Is Flight Safety Our Primary Concern or Our Primary Target for Savings? by Rich Jones long with most industrial sectors, the territory of Chief Executives and Finance knowledge and airmanship; training is the key Acommercial air transport sector is Directors. They permeate the minds and element which delivers this capability and beginning to suffer a serious downturn in thoughts of the entire workforce of any airline, ensures safe endings occur and not accidents. business which has been created by the loss particularly at times like these. These of confidence in the economy generally, the distractions, and the potentially negative effect Despite many years of exchanging aviation safety lack of flexible and reliable financial support on an individual’s concentration on the job in information, and the same mistakes being made and an uncertain and variable oil price. In hand, be they pilot, cabin crew or engineer, will time and again, the number of incidents in today’s addition, the industry, which has always been tend towards errors and mistakes being made sophisticated, risk-aware, commercial air transport extremely competitive has also to operate in more easily and more often. sector remains more than sufficient to justify the a global market where the population has continuing need for the constant reiteration of become increasingly aware and protective of During such times of personal pressures, it must aviation safety lessons. For example, as winter the environment and where political be worth considering greater emphasis on approaches the perennial threat of aircraft icing interference and legal scrutiny bring yet supervision, communication and support as a will be upon us and there will undoubtedly be further pressures from both sides of the business-positive incentive to counter instances of loss of control caused by insufficient aviation argument. Nevertheless, the airline potentially extremely costly errors – it is an attention being paid to it. Does your training sector continues to perform with remarkable investment which could pay dividends to the include seasonal reminders of the importance of resilience and dynamism; it has seen and bottom line in an industry where mistakes can appropriate measures to counter the effects of successfully dealt with many of these be expensive, if not business threatening. ice? The aviation safety website – Skybrary - challenges on many occasions in the past 40 offers up some sound advice to counter aircraft years or more, although it has probably never Training is another area for careful consideration icing that you may wish to consider! had to face them in such depth, coincidence during these financially taut times. Over recent and complexity as it is having to do today. years, both initial and continuity training courses Turning from an old chestnut to a more recent have been steadily squeezed in terms of content phenomenon; the introduction of more efficient Why should FOCUS, a magazine primarily and time allotted, on the basis of the training fuel loads is making an important contribution concerned with aviation safety, wish to rehearse provider’s assurances that simulation and training towards the bottom line, but do your pilots have the many pressures being simultaneously aids have become more effective and therefore a clear understanding of the diversion criteria for exerted on the modern airline business in 2008 much more cost efficient.Yet, over a similar period, the airports and air traffic service providers they – they are very familiar to most of us and clearly commercial aircraft have become highly are using? Should circumstances of weather or a source of serious concern. The rationale for automated and somewhat easier to fly and sudden runway closures conspire against them, doing so is to set in context the obvious operate – at least whilst they remain fully do they know enough about the constraints and temptation in these difficult times for the flight serviceable. However, the on-board systems to assumptions which those supporting the safety message to be pushed down the priority provide the necessary situational awareness and to aircraft’s safe operation will apply, in order that list and off the agenda. Significant pressure to enable the aircraft to be flown accurately in ever sensible decisions on fuel uplift and diversions quickly reduce costs by shedding those more congested airspace have become increasingly are being taken? resources and people dedicated to delivering complex when things start to go wrong. safety, whilst continuing to utter the ‘safety is our primary concern’ mantra can be seen an Nowadays aircraft, and the systems that make easy win for the bottom line. them simple to operate, are becoming more reliable but this is tending to drive us towards However, there is strong business argument becoming increasingly reliant and trusting of against the initially seductive approach of them. In the rare event that they fail, hopefully reducing the sector’s investment in aviation with all the clues to signal such a failure, then the safety in order to transfer the weight of financial necessary depth of training must still have been effort to areas which appear to contribute more provided in order that the accurate diagnosis is directly to business survival. For a start, financial reached and the appropriate corrective actions worries about the future are not the exclusive are deployed through the application of sound UK FLIGHT SAFETY COMMITTEE OBJECTIVES ■ To pursue the highest standards of aviation safety. ■ To constitute a body of experienced aviation flight safety personnel available for consultation. ■ To facilitate the free exchange of aviation safety data. ■ To maintain an appropriate liaison with other bodies concerned with aviation safety. ■ To provide assistance to operators establishing and maintaining a flight safety organisation. 2 focus winter 08 36499®Flight Safety iss 73 25/3/09 11:56 Page 5 CHAIRMAN’S COLUMN The ‘Basics of Safety’ by Steve Hull, British Airways s I leave British Airways after a 38 year an incident, as there is no doubt that the up and use impressive acronyms, but the Acareer that has spanned engineering, smoking hole will be met with an immediate basics are the same. Safety is the flying and for the last sixteen years safety, and impressive response, as history shows us.

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