Learmount

What will your next accident be?

2012-05-24T08:43:31Z

The latest issue of Aero Safety World, the Flight Safety Foundation's monthly journal, contains a first class comment from Bill Voss, the FSF's president and CEO.

He's understandably bothered by the way that the adoption by airlines of safety management systems has been playing out in practise.

I won't blather on about his argument, just reproduce here his four-question test of whether your airline has an effective SMS or not. If you can't provide an honest, data-justified answer to all of them, it hasn't:

1. What is most likely to be the cause of your next accident or serious incident?

2. How do you know that?

3. What are you doing about it?

4. Is it working?

SMS is about risk management. If you don't identify the risks you can't manage them.

Sex and safety management

2012-05-18T17:21:40Z

At the end of the Seventies, airlines had a formula for safety. It didn't work very well, but they had one.

Having studied and written about global airline safety performance for 30 years, I can tell you the evolution in safety thinking over that time has been pretty radical.

(We'll talk about what's going on in the picture in just a moment)

Right now the industry is taking tentative steps into safety management.

To understand why a tailor-made SMS is a good idea, take a look at where safety thinking used to be.

The Seventies "safety equation" would look something like this: where...

safety performance = σ,

compliance with regulations = ρ,

and ordering pilots not to screw up on pain of being fired = π

σ = ρ + π

Simple. Only it often didn't work.

You only have to look at the accident stats to see the difference. Globally airlines are now six times safer than they were in 1979 in terms of fatal accidents per million flights. Okay, aircraft are better now, but there's more to it than that.

In those days we'd study accidents in fine detail, put the carefully assembled paperwork in a filing cabinet, and the lessons from the accidents lived on in the practical sense only until the safety manager who remembered the report left, retired, or died.

Today we have digital databases that store data retrievably forever and reveal trends in real time. Data is the key. If the Board won't listen to anything else, they know they ignore data at their peril.

Now let's move to last week's Baines Simmons Innovation in Aviation Safety Management Awards, presented to those who have used safety management to make a difference in both operational and business terms.

The picture you saw at the top was me opening the envelope to see who'd impressed the independent judging panel. This is what I read out:

Highly Commended: RAF Brize Norton Safety Team: "for demonstrating practical application of dynamic risk assessment"

RAF Brize Norton team: (from left) Wg Cdr Claire Muir; Station Flight Safety Officer Bruce Castle; Flt Lt Chris Gray

(I'm on the right)

Highly Commended: Titan Airways: "for an innovative and intellectual approach to measuring and driving cultural change and risk awareness

Pavan Johal Safety Manager, Titan Airways

And the winner is: Jazz Aviation: "The Jazz entry stood out for its evidence of integrating SMS across aviation safety, quality, health and safety and business"

David Deveau, v-p Safety, Quality and the Environment, Jazz Aviation (Toronto)

And this was the Finalists' line-up, including the winners you'll recognise from above:

On the left is Ronnie Smith, chair of the judging panel for the Innovation in Aviation Safety Management Awards and a SMS lead Consultant at Baines Simmons, who said: "The four additional finalists that also impressed us were easyJet, represented by Dave Prior, Director of Safety and Security and the Operations Risk Department; Manchester Airports Group; Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) and the UK CAA represented by Giles Porter, Head of the Flight Operations Inspectorate."

Ronnie added: "We are delighted to have witnessed the enthusiasm in the industry prompted by this award. We believe it is important that we share accomplishments, celebrate success and give recognition to those organisations leading the field in aviation safety management."

Sex?

If I'd led with Safety Management you wouldn't have got this far

Bizav: the new yacht culture?

2012-05-17T10:39:04Z

Visiting shows like NBAA and EBACE (the latter just finished for the year in Geneva) is a surreal experience for ordinary mortals. It always has been, but is getting more so.

The aeroplanes themselves are particularly beautiful, and just as when one sees women with extraordinary physical beauty, they feel unattainable and all the more desirable for that.

The lower end of the bizav market is still struggling (below: a new Hawker 400 series aircraft)

..but the high end is seemingly unstoppable.

We are accustomed to the idea of big, lavishly finished aeroplanes being provided for heads of state like the King of Saudi Arabia or the Sultan of Brunei, and the very big but rather more utilitarian Air Force One that the President of the United States uses.

But now we're entering a different league for people who are not heads of state...

I think the best way of explaining this phenomenon, which aviation has not seen before, is that these lavishly customised airliners, especially the Airbus ACJ (above: the A319 version) and Boeing BBJ ranges (although you can go up to A380 or 747-8 if you want to), are becoming the new yachts for very high net worth individuals.

Yes, they'll use them for business as well, but they are manifestly much more than airborne offices or utilitarian travel devices.

I suspect that, if you are a Russian oligarch or Middle Eastern oiligarch, acquiring a mere Falcon, Gulfstream or Global Express may soon become terminally uncool.

Francois Chazelle sells ACJ series aeroplanes for Airbus. No wonder he looks pleased with himself. So do his Boeing and Embraer counterparts.

Personally I'd be quite happy with this Legacy. Clear to line up?

Now where would I like to go today...?

Incidentally, if you'd like to be taken on a walking tour of Geveva EBACE, including the aeroplanes, by my colleagues who were there this week, just visit our iFlight interactive dailies..

The Reno air race crash

2012-04-13T16:44:12Z

The FAA is taking a lot of stick for its slack regulation of air race and air show operations, and rightly so. The NTSB, investigating the crash of an air-race-modified P-51D Mustang last September at Reno, Nevada has made recommendations on just about every possible aspect of the FAA's oversight.

This is "The Galloping Ghost". Would you recognise that as a Mustang? I'd struggle! It's been trimmed for pure speed, with other aerodynamic considerations taking a back seat.

One of the NTSB criticisms was that the aircraft was extensively modified with no oversight of the modification process. Then it flew the Reno course at the limits of its performance envelope in front of the crowd without having been tested. No trial runs. No FAA rules requiring it.

Ten people in the crowd were killed by the crashing aircraft, and more than 60 were severely injured.

Here's an NTSB diagram showing how extensive the modifications were. Compare it with the photograph at the top of this post.

Air racing is a thrilling sport, and inherently dangerous. That's why we go to see it. The pilots and the operators know what the risks are, and have the task of balancing them. But the spectators should not face a high risk of death. This crowd did because of where it was: at the apex of the racetrack's high-G final turn.

NTSB head Deborah Hersman says she doesn't intend to bind air racing with paranoic rules, she just wants to make sure common sense is applied to its planning and execution, and says the FAA's guidelines are not up to the job. They aren't.

But I expect they will be.

Shady Lady: an epic true story of a B-24 that crashed and flew again

2012-04-13T16:03:55Z

Tristan Loraine, a professional pilot turned film director, goes around the world looking for real aviation stories to bring back to life. He's certainly done it with Shady Lady, the filmed story of an extraordinary ultra-long-range mission by a USAF Consolidated B-24 Liberator in the Second World War.

The aeroplane ran out of fuel and crash-landed in Australia's remote Northern Territory, but has since flown again.

Such was the impact of the gripping but forgotten story that Tristan uncovered during filming, that President Obama issued a Presidential Citation to the crew last year. It was presented in Sydney to the aircraft commander's widow.

You can find out more here.

What to do if you are intercepted by a Typhoon (you better get it right)

2012-04-04T14:34:08Z

One way of being sure of getting a hostile intercept by a fully armed RAF Typhoon is to get your navigation wrong and penetrate the prohibited airspace over much of London and its surroundings during the 2012 Olympic Games.

In fact, at the time of the Olympics, if you diverge from your flight plan anywhere in South East England, the RAF will take about the same level of interest in you as they would have done in 1940.

If you are intercepted, you'd better comply - and quickly too.

Especially near the Olympics. Security measures against any form of attack from the ground or air, are already fine-tuned. Olympic venues have, historically, been popular places for staging acts of terrorism or protest.

Advice for pilots on how to act upon interception specifically in the 2012 Olympic areas is here. It's based on the standard international intercept protocol, but there are variations you had better know.

Here's a page from the instructions:

Basically the Typhoon will appear on your left and rock its wings. If you don't notice, it'll break right across your bow in dramatic fashion, rocking its wings. If really set on indicating serious intent, the pilot will also ignite flares. That would help at night.

The drill in either case is to rock your wings in acknowledgement, and follow the Typhoon. It's unlikely to be on its own, so don't try and break away - you're being tailed.

The official instruction describing your response is: "Rock your wings, follow the Typhoon, turn away from London".

If you're in a slow machine like a light aircraft or helicopter, your interceptor may be an RAF helicopter with a crewman standing at the open side door with a big notice reading FOLLOW ME. Do it.

It doesn't say what happens if you fail to follow the procedure. I'll leave that to your imagination.

The Faroes and RNP

2012-04-01T10:04:25Z

This shot of the runway at Vagar, Faroe Islands is copied from Atlantic Airways' inflight magazine Atlantic Review. It's not a recent photograph, and things have changed since then. Not dramatically, but significantly.

This blog post complements the previous one which describes - in pictures - the first commercial operation into Vagar by Atlantic Airways' new Airbus A319, using the new RNP-AR satellite-guided precision approach procedure.

Here we look at some of the enabling changes that led to the introduction of RNP, and the challenges faced by this airline that serves the Faroe Islands.

Since this shot was taken, the magnetic pole has shifted a little, and the runway designation is no longer 13/31, it's 12/30. It has also been lengthened to prepare for A319 operations.

An Atlantic Airways shot (below) taken from above the approach to 30, also before the runway was lengthened, gives a good picture of the terrain aviators face approaching the other end - runway 12.

Here (below) is the approach to 30 on the newly lenthened runway, which I took from the A319 on its first commercial schedule, inbound from Copenhagen on 28 March.

Vagar's runway has been lengthened from 1,250m to 1,799m (5,847ft) by extending both ends on raised embankments. Here are the approach light stanchions for runway 12 in the shadow of the raised runway threshold...

Also evident in the magazine picture is that Atlantic's entire fleet of BAE Systems Avro RJs had converged on Vagar that day. They didn't have the A319 at the time. They still have some RJs now as well as the Airbus.

The approach to runway 12 is reckoned to be the more picturesque, but I didn't get to fly it in the aeroplane.

However Atlantic Airways' chief executive Magni Arge took me for a brief drive along the fjord that channels the final approaches. This shot looks along the water toward runway 12

...and here is a chart showing how the various RNP approaches to 12 all end up flowing along the inlet toward the runway

Here's how it looks when you get a little closer to the runway 12 threshold, but seen from sea level...

You can see the raised threshold area for 12.

Meanwhile, since that time Atlantic have sent me a beautiful picture of the 12 approach taken from above the inlet on a perfect day...

That picture was also taken before the runway was lengthened, but it gives a perfect picture of how the terrain intrudes on the left side of the approach path, forcing a right turn on short final for 12.

There is also some interesting terrain waiting for the unwary at the entrance to the inlet...

Below is a picture of Magni Arge addressing the passengers and crew at Copenhagen Kastrup before the first scheduled commercial A319 trip to Vagar. A historic moment for Atlantic, and for the Faroes.

They arrived on time, and safely.

On final for the Faroes: Europe's first RNP letdown in pictures

2012-03-31T16:18:43Z

Atlantic Airways took delivery of its one and only Airbus A319 a bit more than a week ago. It's fitted with special features to help get it into its remote, storm-battered, terrain-surrounded home base at Vagar, Faroe Islands.

I've just flown in there on Atlantic's first A319 commercial schedule serving its main route, Copenhagen - Vagar. That's the new machine (below), on the pan at its home base during its first working turnaround.

The aeroplane is the hero of this Nordic saga, the new approach to Vagar is the storyline. Vagar has Europe's first EASA-approved required navigation performance (RNP 0.1) satellite guided precision approach system. Normal navigation aids would be no good because terrain makes ILS useless there, so visual approaches used to be the only option until last Woden's Day (sorry, last Wednesday).

During winter, that means the schedule couldn't operate a lot of the time. And if the crew takes a risk on a marginal weather forecast and it doesn't work out, the nearest diversions are in Iceland, Norway or Scotland.

Atlantic got me clearance to occupy the jump seat on the CPH - FAE route.

To me, the Faroe Islands had previously been just a name in the shipping forecast broadcast by the BBC on medium wave radio around northern Europe. So on departure from CPH heading north west we traversed sea areas Fisher, South Utsire, Viking and Fair Isle before entering Faroes.

Atlantic's A319 has a single-class 144-seat cabin with special provision for medevac cases. It's navigation system (RNP AR 0.1) was developed by Airbus subsidiary Quovadis, which also designed the approach and departure procedures, working with the airline.

The aircraft is fitted with the most powerful CFM International engines on any Airbus A319 - the 27,000lb thrust-rated CFM56-5B/7 - to improve its single-engine performance because of the terrain at either end of Vagar's runway. Other unique features include a single head-up display for the pilot (still working up to operational status), and a so-called "Florence kit" giving the A319 lower approach speeds and improved braking.

We began our descent toward Vagar as we entered sea area Faroes, when we first saw the waypoints/navaids cluster appearing on the navigation display.

We're talking to Vagar, and know we'll be landing on runway 30.

The first choice for approach is a Y descent to 30, which looks like this...

We'll be using BUREM as the initial approach fix, so we're more or less straight in, with a couple of gentle curves to follow.

But then we hear that the wind direction has backed to 300deg, so the crew decides to switch to the Z approach, which is even straighter...

That's the thing about area navigation approaches: you get lots of choice if it's needed, and for approaches to Vagar, wind direction really matters, because the terrain-generated turbulence can be fearsome. The crew's local knowledge of the microclimate on approach to either end of the runway here really matters when conditions are marginal. For this reason, the RNP approaches are optimised to imitate the visual approaches that the pilots would have chosen to carry out if they had the same winds but visual flight conditions.

Suddenly the south eastern islands in the archipelago start showing up on the nav display. We can't see them yet because of cloud...

...oh yes we can...

...and terrain out on the right there...

...and look, runway in sight! Mind you, only just, if you know where to look...

...yess! there it is...

The glideslope is a little steeper than normal at 3.7deg. The RNP system is delivering perfectly. This is all automatically flown so far, but not for much longer...

Looks good. The newly-lengthened runway is 1,799m long (in early December it was only 1,250m). I think we'll go manual...

Steady as she goes...

...there's quite a hump in the middle of the runway...

...now flare...

...I think that constitutes an arrival...

...there's the terminal...

Quite a welcoming party (below) has turned out to see Atlantic's new baby!

After all, this specially kitted A319 is going to make air connections during the Faroes' winter reliable for the first time in history. That's something to celebrate!

Well done Captain Johan í Nirdistovu...

...well done copilot Hans Skindhøj (who is also a Captain),

and well done Atlantic Airways. Setting up Europe's first satellite-guided precision approach has been a lot of work, and there is yet more to do to prove and refine it and get the approach minima as low as they can go.

It's spring here. OAT 6degC, Latitude 62degN. Not as far north as Iceland, but nearly.

A bit later I'll show you what it's like on terra firma in the Faroes. But I only had a 1h turnaround to take some pix, so I couldn't stray far before re-boarding for CPH.

Why fly?

2012-03-27T12:59:08Z

This was sent to me by a friend, Rory Kay who, as he says, "flies big aeroplanes for a big company". It's his reaction to "Why just marvel?...why not fly?"

As a 54 year old pilot flying big planes for a big company, I frequently

ask myself why I am still doing it, and what the attraction is,

especially at 3 am at 30 West over the Atlantic, plotting out a course

to go around a nest of storms. A somewhat cynical response to myself,

usually to atop the conversation in my head, is "It's the money

stupid!" or "It's all you know how to do you moron; you can't even

change a light bulb without plunging half of Virginia into darkness!"

And then I usually develop the thoughts, and allow myself to drift back

to when I was a nipper growing up in Guernsey in the 60's, and the most

wonderful memories come flooding back. I grew up next to the airport at

La Villiaze, and it was easy and safe to walk or bike to the spotter's

area, and just hang out. I was fascinated at all the types of aircraft

taking off and landing, sometimes in quite an entertaining manner,

depending on the winds. I recall long lazy summer holidays spent

watching with awe the Bristol Freighters, the Aero 145's, the Viscounts,

the Herons, the Daks, the Heralds, the Carvairs, the Cessnas, Austers

and Pipers, thinking, "I want to do that". And I remember all the

pilots in those days in Guernsey, the WW2 veterans flying DC 3's for

BEA, Intra, Morton Air Services, Aurigny, with their fine uniforms

adorned with in some cases with their service medals. There was

Aurigny's Pat Swoffer contentedly puffing away on his pipe as he walked

through the terminal, with that kindly smile, or Bill Stewart sitting up

there in the cockpit of the Intra Dakota, with his headset on over his

hat, and I thought they were God-like. Occasionally one would even talk

to me! And I thought, "I want to be one of them!"

I did not think "I am GOING to do that" when I was 8 or 9, because it

did not occur to me that I could find a way to fulfil those dreams.

That came later. Just hanging out was good enough then.

Fast forward a few years to 15. I still had the long lazy summer to

look forward to, but there was an added dimension to consider - a clear

need for money. A need for money, and a love of watching aeroplanes

fly....so I wandered on impulse into the local Aero Club, and said I

wanted a job. The interview lasted about 15 seconds, and I was duly

"employed" to clean the Cessna 150's in exchange for occasional

flights. I couldn't believe it; and it came true for me. Lots of

flights with club members and an occasional more formal lesson, one of

the first of which was stalling and spinning to see if I could be put

off. I most certainly could not.

Then it was 17th birthday and I soloed on a warm June morning. From

then on it never occurred to me that I should do anything else. I just

ached to get in a plane and fly it.

You have to try it to understand and appreciate what it feels like. Not

flying Microsoft Simulator, not sitting in the back of an airliner. You

have to fly. To me it is almost a narcotic. I dread the day when I

cannot fly.

Since that first solo, I have flown as an instructor at Oxford, a bush

pilot in Africa, a corporate pilot at Luton, and an airline pilot and

check airman flying many narrow and wide body planes around the world.

I stopped counting the hours years ago. They matter not a fig any more.

What I do know is that in all the high tech flying I have done, nothing

compares to handling the basic single engine planes that brought me to

this place. Lazy cross countries across France in a 150, aeros in a Cub

or a Chippy - it is impossible to beat that feeling.

For all the grumbling we do as professional pilots, the stolen pensions,

the (in our case) 40% wage reductions, the reporting for duty at 10 pm

for a 12 hour flight, the plate of pig's swill presented to me that is

my dinner, I am constantly reminded of one solid truth...

They can take away many things from me, my pay, my pension, but they

will never take away my pride at being a pilot; it is the most wonderful

experience to sit in that Chipmunk or Cessna cockpit and just fly. No

radios, no GPS, no Flight Director, no Autopilot, no co-pilot whining

about everything imaginable, eyeing my seat intently.

Just fly.

And he sent this:

Heathrow: the third runway could become inevitable

2012-03-27T09:40:57Z

Airport expansion in the London area is firmly back on the political agenda, having been kicked into the long grass by the present coalition government when it took power.

I predicted this in October two years ago.

Meanwhile, saturated London Heathrow's desirability as a major hub on the world's great trunk routes is under threat, and there are signs of panic in government ranks as the significance of this for the UK economy dawns.

Politically, all options are now back on the cards, including a Thames Estuary location for a massive Heathrow-replacement airport. But the option of a Third Runway at Heathrow is still there, looming dangerously because it is the quickest, cheapest workable solution to London's increasingly dire runway capacity shortage.

And the longer the government dithers, the more attractive the third runway option will become, until it becomes completely inevitable.

The nightmare scenario is that the Third Runway is given the go-ahead, but as a temporary solution while a massive Estuary Hub - and all the transport links to it - is created.

Why just marvel?...why not fly?

2012-03-16T08:53:47Z

The Baltic Aviation Academy has just put into words something I have always wondered idly about but never examined: why is there such a huge number of aviation enthusiasts around the world, but relatively few of them even try to get a private pilots' licence?

Flying as a paid career is not the only way to become an aviator.

Here is Baltic's puzzled observation about aviation enthusiasts: "These people can spend hours talking about various aircraft engine types or cockpit differences, observing and discussing detailed aircraft pictures and expressing their fascination with people who have had an opportunity to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a pilot.

"It is truly puzzling how people who have accumulated so much aviation knowledge refrain from integrating themselves directly into the world of aviation.

Here's Baltic's pitch: "One of the easiest steps towards getting to know this feeling is the PPL course. You can officially call yourself a pilot after just 6-12 months of training. Throughout the PPL studies the candidate gains all the knowledge and practical skills necessary to operate a single-engine, single-pilot aircraft."

Back in 1969 I paid (with difficulty) for my own PPL course, night rating and IMC rating at Booker (aka Wycombe Air Park) in Buckinghamshire, UK. This was before I was accepted for training by the RAF, and I did it mainly because I wanted to, and I knew I might not be good enough for professional selection.

Cockpit familiarisation at Baltic

Ever since then I have retained an immense fondness for "amateur" general aviation and club flying.

Light aviating is the real thing. It's what the Wright Brothers did. It's what Biggles did. It's about mastering a new element, a third dimension, the skill of navigating a windy sky without road-signs. It is liberating and inspirational.

Don't just stand there at the end of the runway with your camera: go and fly a real aeroplane, like the young woman in Baltic's photograph.

Tracking ash the new old fashioned way: MOCCA

2012-02-28T21:32:46Z

A purpose-equipped aircraft for tracking and measuring atmospheric volcanic ash in northern Europe has just been approved for operation on behalf of the UK Met Office.

Known as the Met Office Civil Contingency Aircraft (MOCCA), it is a specially equipped twin-engine Cessna 421C, piston-powered to give it greater resilience when it encounters ash that would damage turbines.

It has been fitted out by Cranfield Aerospace with an array of different sensor devices that will enable it to "see" ash concentrations at different levels, but also take measurements of actual atmospheric contaminants for analysis.

This multi-purpose sensor mounted under the starboard wingtip is not exactly aerodynamic, but it detects, measures, identifies and samples particles of all types - and gases - in the atmosphere.

Below, there's a Brechtel probe on the right of the nose looking like an oversized pitot tube...

The aircraft, G-HIJK built in 1977, is pressurised for high altitude flight and powered by two Teledyne Continental turbocharged engines. It is so packed with onboard specialist equipment that there is room only for a maximum crew of three, but the operator, special missions company DO Systems based at Bournemouth, UK, says a typical mission crew would be a single pilot and a Met Office systems operator.

Data on ash and other atmospheric pollutants is gathered and transmitted in frequent bursts by satellite communications to receivers on the ground managed by the London Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre, which is a Met Office responsibility.

Managing Director of Cranfield Aerospace David Gardner emphasised that the aircraft, while primarily intended to contribute to multinational efforts to enable safe aviation operations when volcanic ash is affecting Europe's airspace, it can also detect and monitor other atmospheric pollutants, hence the Cessna's generic description as a "civil contingencies" aircraft.

Under the port wingtip is a probe that measures position, altitude (by differential GPS), pressure, temperature, humidity and atmospheric behaviour - like turbulence - which puts in context all the other measurements.

As regards other environmental tasks that the MOCCA aircraft can undertake, Gardner cites the example of the Buncefield oil storage site conflagration a few years ago. The aircraft's sensors can identify atmospheric pollution levels that result from such an event, the locations that will be affected, and the risks involved.

"Let's all do nothing": German democracy at work

2012-02-13T12:16:29Z

A committee of Members of Parliament from the German Bundestag has just voted to do nothing about cabin air contamination with neurotoxic organophosphates, on the grounds that it doesn't happen very often. They admit there is an issue, but have rejected action.

In releasing this verdict a few days ago they have proved my prediction wrong (see my immediately preceding blog entry).

I thought Germany was going to do something while all the other European countries had stuck their heads in the sand. Actually I still think the Germans might act.

But the German Government itself has taken refuge in Europe: it's not our decision, says the Government, it's a decision for Europe to take. Brilliant piece of courageous decision-making in defence of their citizens there! Let's take no action despite evidence of more than sixty recent toxic cabin air incidents in German airliners, and let's blame our inaction on Europe.

The parliamentary committee met to hear evidence in September. They heard the evidence from aircraft manufacturers, medical witnesses, pilot representatives and experts in toxicity.

Having heard the evidence, the MPs voted along party lines: the right wing parties voted to do nothing, the left wing parties wanted something done.

How predictable. How scientific! How sad.

But the German accident investigator (BFU) has not laid the issue to rest: see the two previous stories for what's going on.

More fume casualties

2012-02-06T17:09:56Z

Detail is emerging that the copilot of the Air Berlin/Germania 737-700 was not the only crew member to have tested positive for the neurotoxin tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate after the flight (see the blog entry before this one)

All the flight and cabin crew have needed sick leave. I suspect we will hear more from the BFU which is still investigating this incident. I also suspect that the Bundestag - the German Parliament - will show a renewed interest in this subject. A Bundestag committee heard evidence on the issue in September last year.

Watch this space for the results of laboratory tests on crew uniform shirts, and for more incidents on other flights.

I have been reporting this issue for several years now, but there has been a marked difference in the general reaction to this particular report. The Learmount blog has recently had an unusually high number of visitors, but the sceptics are not bothering to respond or to append their statements about what invented nonsense it all is.

All we need now is for Europe's ultimate aviation safety authority, the EASA, to take an interest. So far they have shown none.

Pilot inflight collapse: Germany investigates cabin air poisons

2012-02-02T10:51:36Z

Following the copilot's collapse with nausea from oil fumes in the cockpit air on an Air Berlin flight from Milan Malpensa to Dusseldorf in November, German accident investigator BFU has taken the unprecedented step of sending a blood sample from the copilot for analysis to a specialist scientific organisation.

From previous experience the BFU knew what it might find in the copilot's blood: tri-ortho-cresyl phosphate (TOCP), a chemical constituent of the anti-wear additives in aircraft engine oil. This neurotoxic organophosphate has, on numerous documented occasions worldwide, got into the engine bleed air fed to the cockpit and cabin for air conditioning and pressurisation.

So the BFU arranged for the blood sample - taken from the copilot at a Dusseldorf hospital immediately after the flight - to be sent to the University of Nebraska for analysis. The tests proved positive, the BFU has reported. There was indeed TOCP in the copilot's blood, and what is more it had bonded with one of the natural enzymes in the copilot's body that regulates muscular and cognitive neural activity.

This is what TOCP does. The neurotoxicity of organophosphates is a known and understood phenomenon.

The BFU has said it is not going to put this subject down*. It is going to investigate the medical consequences of TOCP poisoning for pilots. Actually this is well known, but the BFU wants its own proof.

This is just what the airlines and aircraft manufacturers have been dreading: a government agency that is not prepared to look the other way any longer, like all the others have done so far.

The UK Civil Aviation Authority, for example, has had to face several cases of the inflight incapacitation of airline pilots.

Its reaction? Heath and Safety issues in an aircraft cabin are not its job [actually that's a wilful misinterpretation of its duties], and besides which, it was the pilots' fault for not getting their oxygen masks on fast enough.

How refreshing to see an agency like the BFU with the courage to face up to an issue as controversial as this.

It may lead to the industry finally having to do something about a problem which has been well known and understood for fifty years, and which has robbed thousands of flightcrew and cabin crew of their health and livelihoods.

Watch now as those with interests at stake try to silence the BFU.

Watch the conspiracy theories about the blood samples being rolled out.

Watch for the denigration of the copilot as a total wimp because the captain was not affected to the same degree.

Even Boeing, which has eliminated the risk of organophosphate contamination from its 787 series by generating cabin air supplies from sources independent of the engines and auxiliary power units, cannot celebrate, because all its other types are conventional.

The Air Berlin flight in this case was a Boeing 737-700 operated for the airline by Germania, but in October last year an Air Berlin Airbus A330 had just such an event, and the BFU is looking into that, too.

No pressurised types that draw bleed air from the engines or APU are immune. That means all of them except the 787.

If you want to see just how convoluted this issue has become, visit my blog entry about Cranfield University's awful "report" on cabin air contaminants. Incidentally, Professor Ramsden, who dared criticise the report is no longer with the University.

*The link takes you to the BFU report, in German, and you have to scroll down the bulletin some distance to this report, which is for the event dated 18 November.