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Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0714.PDF
Safety corporate flying in 2003, continuing a safe run since 1998, and last year Australia recorded only one no-injury incident, involving a Bombardier Learjet 45. Europe does not have centralised analysis yet and it will probably be a long time before it has an accessible regional database. Last year the region lost a business jet to birdstrike: on 1 June a Eurojet Italia Learjet 45 crashed shortly after take-off from Milan Linate, killing its two crew. Although the final report is still awaited, a major factor is believed to be a multiple birdstrike. Corporate flying normally involves tur bine aircraft flown by a crew of two fully qualified professional pilots. In the USA they operate under Part 91 private flying regulations, and in Europe under full airline requirements. Business flying may be as simple as an aircraft regularly flown by its owner for business travel purposes. To put the Breiling figures in context, he notes that corporate and executive operations increased by 3.5% last year, business opera tions by 1.5%, and general aviation overall was 1% more active. Fractional safety No distinction is made in Breiling's figures between the safety performance of the fast- growing fractional-ownership sector and other forms of corporate operation, which can vary from a single aircraft owned and managed by a company to small virtual airlines run by huge multinational corpo rations like Shell. By far the world's largest fractional oper ator, Netjets, claims it has advantages over small organisations. Chief operating officer of Netjets Europe David Marcus says: "Compliance standards vary massively in this industry, and it varies most in recruit ment." When Netjets is recruiting it some times tests applicant pilots from small corporate or air-taxi operations, he says: "They have licences, but some of them can hardly fly and others are excellent. Some have never been in a simulator in their life." All Netjets' type or recurrent training is carried out by FlightSafety, the US-based training specialist, says Marcus, but Netjets does its own crew-resource management training, which is repeated annually for all pilots. Organisations like Netjets have three areas of focus in running their businesses, claims Marcus: safety, service and econom ics. Safety has to be top of the list, he explains, because although a large airline with a strong brand name flying large air craft can survive a serious accident with its business unharmed, "operators of small aircraft frequently carrying celebrities or high-profile people cannot afford to have an accident, because the perceptions of the STRATEGY Surviving the last ditch Crew factors feature in most accidents, but technical problems can also intervene On 22 July last year the pilot of a Cessna CitationJet was forced to ditch his aircraft just off the coast of Washington state, USA because he had lost control of the pitch trim. Having ditched at 100kt (185km/h), he and his passengers escaped via the main door, and the aircraft took 10min to sink. They all survived. This accident shows that ditching is today survivable, and the example is used as a taster for a comprehensive briefing on ditching presented on a Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) instructional compact disc entitled Waterproof flight operations, which was created with the corporate and business flying community specifically in mind. The FSF decided to carry out the research for the CD following requests from business aviation operators. These operators were considering flights across oceanic areas and wanted information about whether preparation, training and the right equipment could increase crew and passenger chances of surviving a ditching. Even in the industry, most people still seem to think ditching is not survivable, and preparation for it is a triumph of hope over experience. The FSF's head of publications, Roger Rozelle, led the task and admits that although he is a pilot, and a former master mariner, he did not know how much information was available, and found the project expanded dramati cally as his team worked on it. But, he says, they found that ditching can be survivable, and that appropriate preparation for this remote but real possibility is not time wasted. The comprehensive recommenda tions include key advice: • the crew should be trained in hands-on operation of the emer gency equipment; • a fully trained flight attendant should be carried on transoceanic flights because he or she can dramatically improve the chances of passenger survival in a ditching; • operators should consider what equipment they might carry above the minimum legal requirement, and the CD lists desirable equipment as well as providing the regulatory minimal as stated by the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the US Federal Aviation Administration, the European Joint Aviation Authorities and several other major aviation authorities. Basic requirements for any flight of more than 120min from land include not just lifejackets but Irferafts, even for rela tively small aircraft. • it is advisable to know where rescue could come from and how to contact assistance. For example, in mid- ocean, ditching near a ship whose crew has been contacted on the inter national maritime distress frequency would clearly help. www.fliqhtinternational.com FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 18-24 MAY 2004 47
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