Category: Pilot

Travel Risk – Air India Pilot (also Air India’s Operations Director) Drunk Again!

Air India operations director stopped from piloting flight after failing breath tests

A senior pilot who is also director of operations for Air India, and has had responsibility for flight safety and training, said he was told by the carrier he failed two breathalyzer tests on Sunday before a flight to London from New Delhi.

It is the second time Arvind Kathpalia, who is also on the loss-making airline’s board, has been in trouble over alcohol tests. He was suspended for three months in 2017 for allegedly refusing to take breathalyzer tests.

Kathpalia told Reuters in an interview by phone that he would contest the results and claimed they were related to internal feuding within the state-owned company.

According to a description for the operation director’s job when Kathpalia got appointed in June 2017, he is responsible for flight operations, ground operations, and flight safety and training operations.

It is unclear if those remain the job specifications.

Air India declined to comment for this article.

Kathpalia failed two breathalyzer tests on Sunday and was declared unfit to fly, according to a pre-flight medical examination report for alcohol, posted on the website of news portal India Today.

Kathpalia, who denies he had been drinking, corroborated the results of the breathalyzer and said he was tested twice in a span of 20 minutes, adding that the second test’s reading was higher than the first.

“It was 1:30 in the afternoon, only a bloody stark raving alcoholic is bloody drunk at 1:30 in the afternoon,” Kathpalia said. “I am going to contest this.”

He said that at Air India “everyone is fighting with everyone,” and that he has been targeted.

In 2017, Kathpalia was suspended for three months when he had allegedly refused to take breathalyzer tests before and after his flight between Bengaluru and New Delhi and back in January 2017, according to a court document available on law portal Indiakanoon.

In August last year, the Indian Commercial Pilots Association, a trade union representing pilots of the state-owned carrier, filed a court case against Kathpalia requesting stern action against him over the missed breathalyzer tests and some other behavior.

Calls made to union representatives late on Sunday were not answered.

Kathpalia was executive director of flight operations during the earlier incident.

When he was promoted to operations director it was contested by the union in its petition to the court.

The court ordered the New Delhi police to file a first information report (FIR), the first step in India’s legal system that can lead to an investigation, against Kathpalia in August this year, according to reports in major Indian newspapers.

New Delhi police officials could not immediately confirm the status of the case.

The 2017 allegation “was a complete set-up,” said Kathpalia, who said it was the result of a scheduling issue rather than his refusal to take tests.

He claims that he is under attack partly because he is an employee of the original Air India, which was India’s international carrier, while the union is from the erstwhile Indian Airlines, which was a domestic carrier. The two airlines were merged into one in 2007.

“There is a lot of animosity after the merger. The animosity exists till today. They refuse to acknowledge each other,” said Kathpalia.

Reported by Reuter’s Promit Mukherjee; Edited by Martin Howell and Andrea Ricci on 12 November 2018.

Travel Risk – Drunk Pilot

Drunk Japanese pilot arrested at Heathrow Airport

Japan Airlines planeImage copyright GETTY IMAGES

A Japanese pilot who was arrested at Heathrow Airport for being drunk has admitted being more than nine times the legal alcohol limit.

Katsutoshi Jitsukawa, 42, who works for Japan Airlines, was arrested on 28 October after failing a breath test.

He was found to have 189mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in his system – the legal limit for a pilot is 20mg.

The first officer pleaded guilty to exceeding the alcohol limit at Uxbridge Magistrates’ Court on Thursday.

Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that police were alerted by the driver of a crew bus who smelled alcohol on the pilot.

He had been due to be part of a crew flying a Japan Airlines (JAL) flight JL44 to Tokyo but failed a breath test 50 minutes before the departure time.

The Boeing 777 aircraft took off after a 69-minute delay.

JAL issued an apology and pledged to “implement immediate actions to prevent any future occurrence”, adding that “safety remains our utmost priority”.

The drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80mg, compared to 20mg for pilots.

Jitsukawa was remanded in custody and will be sentenced at Isleworth Crown Court on 29 November.

In June, British Airways pilot Julian Monaghan was jailed for eight months for being caught on duty with 86mg of alcohol in his system. He had turned up for work at Gatwick Airport after drinking three double vodkas.

Reported by the BBC on 1 November 2018.

Drunk Singapore Airlines Pilot caught by a random Australian Government alcohol test!

Singapore Airlines flight from Melbourne cancelled after pilot failed alcohol test

SINGAPORE: A Singapore Airlines (SIA) flight from Melbourne to Wellington was cancelled on Saturday morning (Sep 15) after the pilot failed an alcohol test.

Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority had conducted a random drug and alcohol test on all crew members before the flight, and the pilot “did not pass the test due to having higher than suitable blood alcohol limit”, said an SIA spokesperson in response to Channel NewsAsia’s queries.

“The pilot in question has been suspended from all operations until an investigation is undertaken,” SIA added.

Flight SQ247 was scheduled to depart Melbourne at 7am local time on Saturday and arrive in Wellington at 12.20pm.

The return flight SQ248 on Saturday was also cancelled, said SIA.

Some passengers affected by the flight cancellation took to social media to express their frustrations, saying that they were not informed for several hours about alternative arrangements such as booking a new flight.

“Probably my most frustrating experience in an airport … just left the Melbourne airport after 6h waiting,” said one passenger on Twitter.

“We sincerely apologise to those affected by the cancellation of these flights. However, the safety of our customers and crew is our highest priority,” said the SIA spokesperson.

“We are currently working with those customers whose travel has been inconvenienced to find suitable alternate travel arrangements as soon as possible,” SIA added.

Reported by Channel NewsAsia on 15 September 2018.

Travel Risk: Your Airline Pilot’s Performance is impacted by Quality of Air in the Cockpit

Stale Cockpit Air May Be Dulling Your Airline Pilot’s Performance

  • New Harvard study finds pilots fail more tests with higher CO2
  • Carbon dioxide levels once thought safe are raising concern

That poorly ventilated conference room isn’t the only place with the potential for sick-air syndrome.

Airliner cockpits can also have levels of carbon dioxide elevated enough that in simulations it causes pilots to fail test maneuvers at higher rates than normal, a new Harvard University study has found.

The first-of-its-kind research suggests that current regulations aren’t adequate to assure there’s enough fresh air in airline flight decks and raises questions about whether even moderately elevated carbon dioxide levels could impact safety, said Joseph Allen, an assistant professor at Harvard’s School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

“It’s clear that the air quality in the cockpit can have an impact on performance,” Allen said. “It’s clear we haven’t been thinking about it too deeply in terms of the impact on pilot performance. Now that we know, I think we’re obligated to ask those next sets of questions and really understand it.”

In recent years, studies have shown that even an increase of a few hundred parts per million of carbon dioxide in the air we breath causes people to test lower for cognitive skills. But until the latest study, pilots and airline cockpits hadn’t been examined.

Crowded Airliners

Normal levels in the atmosphere are 400 parts per million. Concentrations of the colorless, tasteless gas can rise in poorly ventilated spaces where people exhale it — such as crowded airliners.

Carbon dioxide levels reached as high as 1,400 parts per million on five percent of airline flights the European Aviation Safety Agency tested, according to data it released last year. The average was 603 parts per million, just slightly higher than levels found in the air.

Airliners replenish oxygen in a plane at high altitudes by pulling in the thin air and pressurizing it, mostly by scooping it from the front end of jet engines.

Because earlier studies showed people performed more poorly on tests of brain function at levels as low as 1,000 parts per million, the researchers thought it would make sense to examine pilot skills and carbon dioxide.

Thirty airline pilots were recruited to fly multiple three-hour segments in a special flight simulator in which carbon dioxide levels could be manipulated. Performance on 21 maneuvers — ranging from making a steep turn to handling an emergency engine fire — decreased as carbon dioxide levels rose, according to the study. Flight examiners certified by the Federal Aviation Administration rated the pilots’ performance.

At 700 parts per million, pilots were 69 percent more likely to correctly perform the maneuvers compared to when they were breathing carbon dioxide at 2500 parts per million. At 1,500 parts per million, they were 52 percent more likely to pass compared to the higher level.

The study was published Wednesday in the Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology.

Allen, who is also co-director of Harvard’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment, took pains to say that air travel is extremely safe. There has been only one passenger death on a U.S.-registered airline in more than nine years and there’s never been any evidence linking routine carbon dioxide levels to a crash.

Buffalo Crash

However, several of the few recent fatal accidents that have occurred involved puzzling lapses in pilot performance, according to accident investigation agencies. One example was when a captain on a Colgan Air flight made a series of abrupt maneuvers in 2009 near Buffalo, causing a perfectly good commuter plane to plunge to the ground, killing 50.

One of the maneuvers the pilots in the study were tested on was a simulated engine emergency, which was similar to the real situation on April 17 when debris from a jet on a Southwest Airlines Co. killed a passenger, Allen said.

At the very least, Allen said, regulation agencies like the FAA might want to study the issue and compare the growing research on the effects of carbon dioxide with the existing U.S. regulations on aircraft design.

“The goal is to optimize conditions for a safe flight,” he said, “and the air in the cockpit has to be a part of that conversation.”

Current U.S. regulations governing aircraft air quality allow for concentrations of carbon dioxide were drafted in 1996 before its effects on human performance were known. It allows more than 10 times the levels found in the atmosphere, or 5,000 parts per million.

According to the limited data available, the air in most aircraft is below that ceiling. But there are indications that carbon dioxide can spike. Tests of air in aircraft passenger cabins show carbon dioxide levels typically climb to 2,000-2,500 parts per million during loading and unloading, when a plane’s ventilation system is operating at lower capacity.

“There’s virtually no information on the air quality in the cockpit. It’s the one place where it seems we really would want to know about the most,” Allen said.

Published by Bloomberg on 8 August 2018.

A study is needed on air in the passenger cabin.

Singapore Airlines pilot wisdom questioned after deciding to fly on despite confirmed ‘tail strike’, risking the life of 282 passengers and crew

Australian Government launches Probe launched into Singapore Airlines ‘tail strike’ flight SQ238

  • Melbourne Airport Air traffic controllers warn pilot of smoke or dust coming from the rear of the aircraft on take-off
  • Singapore Airlines pilot of the Boeing 777-300, with 282 passengers and crew on board, took the risk to continue to Singapore instead of returning to the airport to check for possible damage
  • In the event of a confirmed tail strike, QANTAS policy is to turn the aircraft around
  • Singapore Airlines confirmed that an engineers’ inspection of Flight 238 on its arrival in Singapore had revealed a tail strike with contact with the tail skid system. The aircraft is being repaired.
  • Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigating

Australia’s air safety watchdog has launched an investigation into a “tail strike” at Melbourne airport on Sunday where a Singapore Airlines captain flew on to Singapore despite being warned by air traffic controllers of smoke or dust coming from the rear of the aircraft on take-off.

The event has raised debate in the aviation sector about the wisdom of the pilot of the Boeing 777-300, with 282 passengers and crew on board, deciding to not return to the airport to check for possible damage.

A Qantas spokeswoman told The Australian: “In the event of a confirmed tail strike, our policy is to turn the aircraft around.”

A Singapore Airlines spokesman yesterday confirmed that an engineers’ inspection of Flight 238 on its arrival in Singapore had revealed a tail strike, but said it did not risk the integrity of the plane. “The inspection in Singapore confirmed there was no contact with the fuselage, (but) there had been contact with the tail skid system,” he said. “The affected component is being repaired and the aircraft is expected to return to service (today).”

He added: “Safety of our customers is our No 1 priority.”

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau is investigation. The aircraft took off on a day that saw wild winds, and the main runway was closed for 30 minutes as engineers inspected for damage after the ­accident.

“Following advice from air traffic control that a suspected tail strike had occurred, the captain confirmed there was no aircraft system alert of a tail strike and conducted further checks,” said the Singapore Airlines spokesman. “These checks, undertaken to confirm that all aircraft systems and parameters are normal as ­according to the tail strike checklist, also showed no indication of a tail strike and as such the decision was made to proceed.”

In 2009 at Melbourne airport, an Emirates Airbus A340-500 struck its tail three times, and sustained $100 million damage as it barely cleared the airport boundary fence before returning to make an emergency landing.

A tail strike led to the deadliest single aircraft accident in history in 1985 when a poorly repaired bulkhead on a Japan Airlines 747SR gave way several years later, leading to the loss of 520 people when it crashed.

Reported by The Australian on 11 October 2016.

 

Pilot error results in AirAsia flight bound for Malaysia to land in Melbourne!

AirAsia flight bound for Malaysia landed in Melbourne after pilot error

  • Pilots abandoned attempt to fly to Malaysia after its pilot entered wrong coordinates of starting position, report says
  • The error caused the plane to track in the wrong direction after takeoff
  • When pilots decided to discontinue the flight, plane was diverted to Melbourne

A flight to Malaysia from Sydney was diverted to Melbourne after its pilot entered incorrect coordinates of the plane’s starting position, an Australian aviation investigation report has found.

Carrying 212 passengers, the AirAsia flight bound for Kuala Lumpur on March 10, 2015, was flying in the wrong direction after takeoff from Sydney, because the pilot had manually entered the wrong coordinates of the plane’s position into the flight’s onboard navigation systems.
It was the first of several errors the flight crew made that day, according to the report (PDF) the Australian Transport Safety Bureau published Wednesday.
Faulty earmuffs prompted the captain and the first officer to swap their preflight duties. The captain usually conducts an external inspection, while the first officer remains in the cockpit to complete preparation procedures.
When manually entering the coordinates of the plane’s position, the pilot incorrectly entered the longitude from a sign outside the cockpit window as 01519.8 east (15 degrees 19.8 minutes east) instead of 15109.8 east (151 degrees 9.8 minutes east), the report said.
“This resulted in a positional error in excess of 11,000 kilometers (6,835 miles), which adversely affected the aircraft’s navigation systems and some alerting systems,” the report said.
The crew had “a number of opportunities to identify and correct the error,” the report said, but didn’t notice the problem until after the plane became airborne and started tracking in the wrong direction. Several message alerts and sounds suggested the error before takeoff, but the crew ignored them, according to the report.
Once the captain and the first officer realized the mistake, they tried to fix the system. But it was too late.
“Attempts to troubleshoot and rectify the problem resulted in further degradation of the navigation system, as well as to the aircraft’s flight guidance and flight control system,” the report said.
As systems failed further, the crew asked to return to Sydney and conduct a landing without the use of navigation systems. However, weather conditions in Sydney forced the plane to land in Melbourne instead.
The plane spent three hours on the ground in Melbourne before eventually departing for the Malaysian capital.
In a statement obtained by CNN, AirAsia X said all aircraft have been equipped with upgraded flight management systems since the incident.
“AirAsia X would like to stress that we have in place robust management systems to monitor and prevent similar incidents from reoccurring,” a representative said.
“We also wish to reiterate that we have regularly passed safety and security audits conducted by various international regulators. … We remain committed to ensuring our compliance to all safety and security regulations.”
Source: By Bianca Britton, for CNN on 7 September 2016

Drunk Pilot suspended by Sri Lanka Airlines just before flight from Frankfurt to Colombo

In what may have prevented yet another tragic flight crash, Sri Lanka’s national carrier Sri Lanka Airlines suspended a “visibly drunk” airplane captain who failed a breathalyser test just before he was due to fly 274 passengers and crew from Frankfurt to Colombo, the airline said Sunday.

“Upon receiving the results (of the test) SriLankan Airlines took immediate steps to suspend the services of the said captain and took alternative measures to operate the flight to Colombo,” the airline said in a statement.

An airline source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Flight UL554 was held up at Frankfurt airport for more than 15 hours on Friday as staff scrambled to find another captain for the Airbus A330, according to France 24.

The crew raised the alarm after noticing that the captain was visibly drunk, the source, who has direct knowledge of the matter, told AFP. The airline said an internal investigation was underway into the incident and it would cooperate with any probe by German authorities.

The cash-strapped airline is due to stop its flights to Frankfurt from October as it slashes routes to European destinations. It is also planning to lease out some of its A330 planes to other airlines in an attempt to raise cash. Suffering from an accumulated $1-billion loss, it is seeking a foreign partner to take over its management.

Source: Zero Hedge on 21 August 2016