Update 1: Air India grounds its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet, after FAA emergency directive

by Devesh Agarwal

The fleet of six Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners of state-owned national carrier Air India has been grounded by the country's aviation regulator the DGCA, which took this decision following the issue of an Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) the regulator in the country of manufacture, and also the certifying body of the aircraft. The EAD concerns risks of fire in the aircraft's Lithium-ion batteries.

(Read the FAA Press Release here).

(You can read the FAA Emergency AD at the end of this article, or download it here).

Air India operates three international routes (Dubai, Frankfurt and Paris Roissy), and three domestic services (Bangalore, Chennai, and Kolkata), all from its base in New Delhi. One aircraft is used as a stand-by.

An Air India spokesperson informed Bangalore Aviation the airline is making "alternate arrangements" including changing of aircraft type on some routes, and "arrangements" for affected passengers, but refused to elaborate. The airline has also not issued any statement on the 787.

The FAA EAD comes after multiple incidents which afflicted Boeing's newest generation aircraft in the last few weeks. A United Airlines Boeing 787-8 was diverted near New Orleans on December 4, 2012. On December 8, a Qatar Airways 787 reported a generator failure. On January 7, a Japan Airlines 787 suffered an APU battery fire at Boston. On January 11, another ANA Dreamliner suffered a cracked wind-shield while on a domestic flight. Air India's debut flights were marred by air-conditioning pack failures. The other three operators Chile's LAN, Ethiopian Airlines, and LOT Polish Airlines have not reported any incidents with the 787.

In addition to United Airlines, and Air India, the two Japanese carriers, All Nippon Airways (ANA) and Japan Airlines (JAL), the first two operators of the 787, who operate almost 50% of the global 787 fleet (24 out of 50), grounded their fleets yesterday. LAN confirmed it is suspending 787 flights on advice of Chile's aviation regulator. The airline issued a statement

“In compliance with the recommendation of the Federal Aviation Administration of the United States (FAA) and in coordination with the Chilean Aeronautical Authority (DGAC), LAN announces that we will temporarily suspend the operation of our three Boeing 787 aircraft.

“Flights that were scheduled to be operated by the 787 will be temporarily replaced with other aircraft in our fleet to mitigate any potential impact that this situation could cause our passengers and cargo clients. The safety of our operation and our passengers is our top priority and we lament any inconvenience that this may cause.”

LOT have cancelled their launch event for their Warsaw Chicago service. The decisions of Qatar and Ethiopian are awaited, though it is expected they will follow suit.

Boeing reimposed faith in the safety of its aircraft. Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney issued the following statement following the FAA's EAD.

"The safety of passengers and crew members who fly aboard Boeing airplanes is our highest priority.

"Boeing is committed to supporting the FAA and finding answers as quickly as possible. The company is working around the clock with its customers and the various regulatory and investigative authorities. We will make available the entire resources of The Boeing Company to assist.

"We are confident the 787 is safe and we stand behind its overall integrity. We will be taking every necessary step in the coming days to assure our customers and the traveling public of the 787's safety and to return the airplanes to service.

"Boeing deeply regrets the impact that recent events have had on the operating schedules of our customers and the inconvenience to them and their passengers."

A DC-10-40 modified to perform as a tanker.

The Federal Aviation Administration does not enjoy the same reputation of independence as the NTSB, due to its contradicting roles of a regulator and a promoter of aviation. One has to go back 34 years to 1979, to find the last time the FAA issued an EAD on an aircraft. That was the McDonnell Douglas DC-10, following the horrific crash at Chicago of an American Airlines DC-10. In an ironic twist of history, the travelling public lost faith in the DC-10, and McDonnell Douglas never recovered from this disaster. It eventually went bankrupt, and was acquired by Boeing.

In no way do we imply the 787 is an unsafe aircraft, and we are confident the efforts of Boeing and its vendors will find a solution; but, speed is of the essence. Through its EAD the FAA and by extension other regulators will require operators (airlines) to prove that the batteries on their 787s are safe.

Unlike earlier generation aircraft, the 787 relies on greater electrical power to perform aircraft functions traditionally performed by hydraulic means. As a result it has a greater usage of batteries. While Lithium-ion batteries similar to the type used in the 787 are fairly common in the aerospace industry, the groundings will put tremendous pressure on both Boeing, and the battery manufacturer GS Yuasa of Japan, to examine their entire value chain, from design, to manufacturing, to quality control, determine reasons for the failures and find solutions, quickly.

Boeing has not indicated it will stop or suspend production of the 787. In fact the 100th 787 just entered the production line recently. However, while Boeing can assemble 787s it cannot fly them and therefore cannot conduct any test flights. The flight lines at both the Everett and Charleston plants will start filling up soon.

While the seriousness of the battery problems are not fully known, and therefore a time-frame for implementing a solution is elusive right now, Boeing has to keep history in mind. The DC-10 grounding in 1979 lasted over a month. In today's day and age neither Boeing nor Yuasa can afford this, especially after over three years of delay plaguing this fine aircraft.

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Update 1: 787 Interim Replacement Plan

Through January 22nd, Air India has implemented the following replacement plan for segments previously scheduled to be operated by the Boeing 787 Dreamliner:

Delhi - Chennai/Bangalore will be operated with the Airbus A330-200. Since the A330s are already based in Chennai to fly Chennai-Singapore, the aircraft which operates the night flight to Chennai will be rotated through Delhi for domestic flights during the day.

Delhi - Kolkata/Dubai will be operated by Boeing 747-400s which are currently used as spare aircraft for maintenance substitutions and charters.

Delhi - Paris Charles de Gaulle will be operated by a spare Boeing 777-200LR.

Delhi - Frankfurt will be operated by a spare Boeing 777-300ER.



US Federal Aviation Administration Emergency AD # 2103-02-51 787 Battery

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US FAA and EASA issue Emergency Airworthiness Directive on Airbus A320 family aircraft

DATE: December 17, 2012
AD #: 2012-26-51

Emergency airworthiness directive (AD) 2012-26-51 is sent to owners and operators of
Airbus Model A318, A319, A320, and A321 series airplanes.

Background
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), which is the Technical Agent for the Member States of the European Community, has issued EASA Emergency Airworthiness Directive 2012-0264-E, dated December 17, 2012 (referred to after this as the Mandatory Continuing Airworthiness Information or “the MCAI”), to correct an unsafe condition for the specified products.

EASA has advised that an Airbus Model A330 airplane equipped with Angle of Attack (AoA) sensors installed with conic plates recently experienced blockage of all sensors during climb, leading to autopilot disconnection and activation of the alpha protection (Alpha Prot) when Mach number was increased. Based on the results of subsequent analysis, it is suspected that these conic plates may have contributed to the event. Investigations are ongoing to determine what caused the blockage of these AoA sensors.

Blockage of two or three AoA sensors at the same angle may cause the Alpha Prot of the
normal law to activate. Under normal flight conditions (in normal law), if the Alpha Prot activates and Mach number increases, the flight control laws order a pitch down of the airplane that the flight crew might not be able to counteract with a side stick deflection, even in the full backward position.

This condition, if not corrected, could result in reduced control of the airplane. EASA also issued Emergency AD 2012-0258-E, dated December 4, 2012, for Airbus Model A330 and A340 airplanes to require an amendment of the AFM to ensure that flight crews apply the applicable emergency procedure.

AoA sensor conic plates of similar design are also installed on Model A320 series airplanes. Installation of these AoA sensor conic plates was required for Model A318, A319, A320, and A321 series airplanes by EASA AD 2012-0236, dated November 9, 2012 (corrected November 12, 2012).

Subsequently, EASA issued AD 2012-0236R1, dated December 17, 2012, to remove the requirement to install AoA sensor conic plates.

Read the full Emergency AD here.

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IndiGo responds to DGCA's charges on "unsafe airlines"

The on-going spat between India's aviation regulator the Directorate General of Civil Aviation and the airlines has been raging for the last few days, which has seen some pretty serious charges come forth from the regulator.

IndiGo, which is believed to be India's only profitable airline at present, has responded to the charges of the DGCA in a statement.

IndiGo response to findings during Financial Surveillance Audit

This is with regards to the recent stories that have been reported in the press based on DGCA’s findings during financial surveillance audit where issues were raised about IndiGo’s safety norms. Safety is a key concern at IndiGo, and as an airline we always cooperate with the DGCA and comply with the regulator’s instructions. IndiGo is the first airline in India to proactively start to implement a Safety Management System (SMS), we follow our training, monitoring and safety procedures meticulously with no exceptions. Also, since its launch IndiGo practices 100% Flight Data Monitoring and follow - up action is immediately taken where required.

Specific to the financial audit and safety review by the DGCA report on airlines, the following is IndiGo’s stance to each of the issues that have been raised:

[DGCA observation]

1) A total of 11 premature engine removals were carried out till October, 2011, out of which three were due to bird hits, which is considered to a large number.

INDIGO’s STANCE
Seven of the above engine removals were in compliance of FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] Airworthiness Directive (AD)*. The deadline to comply with the FAA AD is January, 2013. In fact, IndiGo has pro-actively complied with the FAA AD well ahead of time. Three engines were removed due to discrepancy found post bird hit inspections. One engine was removed due to fracture of lug on Gearbox casing.

*{There is an Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2010-20-07 issued by FAA on the HPC 3-8 drum for IAE V2500-A5 engines. Subsequently DGCA has issued Mandatory Mod DGCA/V2500/12 for complying with this FAA AD. This essentially requires the change of a “Silver coated” nuts between the HPC 3-8 Drum and the 9-12 HPC Drum inside the engine to a “Non-Silver Coated” nut. This AD states that this should be complied on all affected engines by January, 2013. In order to comply with this, the engine has to be removed and sent to the shop. In the IndiGo fleet, this FAA AD was applicable to 45 Engines. IndiGo took a pro-active approach and has complied with this AD on 43 Engines as per FAA AD. Therefore, IndiGo is complying with this Directive well-ahead of the deadline.}

In view of the same, it is noted that the above mentioned engine removals were not because of any performance degradation of propulsion system but for pertinently complying with the AD or damage due to bird hits. Hence, this query stands answered and closed.

2) Scrutiny of the “Snag Reporting Form” of the period Jan-Oct, 2011 reveals that large number of engineering snags have occurred, which are on an average about 250 on monthly basis. In the month of Oct. 2011 itself, a total of 261 snags have been reported for a fleet of 46 aircraft. However, the airline has reported only two incidents to DGCA. Preliminary examinations of the snags reveal that few of the snags are reportable incidents, which have not been reported by the airline.

INDIGO’s STANCE
IndiGo submits a “Daily Defect Report” to the Airworthiness department of DGCA and therefore, there is 100 % reporting of all maintenance actions. Incident reporting at present is being done as per the guidelines of DGCA Air Safety Circular (ASC) 5 of 82. A meeting was held between IndiGo’s and DGCA Air Safety officials on 30th December, 2011, wherein all 261 pilot reported defects were jointly reviewed and following was agreed upon:

a. PIB to be carried out within next 10 working days on following three Pilot reported defects:

• VT – IEH: ENG # 2 FADEC Alternator, OVSPD protection fault, ENG # FADEC B Fault of 7th October, 2011
• VT – INE: Engine Vibration of October 22nd, 2011
• VT – IEC: ADR Disagree of October 25th, 2011

b. IndiGo will constitute an internal committee and prepare case studies for commonly occurring snags such as Vent Avionics Fault, Brake, LGCIU Fault, Door Warnings and Nose wheel vibration. Findings from the case studies shall be submitted by the middle of February, 2012.

In view of the above, the open issue is adequately addressed and closed.

3) As envisaged in Aviation Environmental Circular 1 of 2009, the airline does not have Environmental Cell.

INDIGO’s STANCE

IndiGo has constituted an environmental cell. The members of the Environmental Cell are S.C Gupta, Vice President – Engineering, (Nodal Office), Mukesh, Dy. Chief of Flight Safety, M.S Ahluwalia, Director – Power plant and Contracts, Mr. Aakash Bhatnagar, DGM – Flight Operations.

4) A total of 60 incidents have been reported in 2011(up to Oct.). Out of 60 incidents, investigations of 30 incidents was carried which include 26 Single Page Investigations, which were conducted by the airlines itself without appropriate approval from DGCA. Seven of the Precautionary Landings have also been investigated through single page report.

INDIGO’s STANCE
IndiGo carries out detailed investigations into each incident case. PIB reports for minor incidents were prepared in a DGCA approved Single Page format. However this practice has been since discontinued. In this regard, we treat the issue closed.

5) FOQA record of 100% monitoring could not be verified due to non-availability of proper data.

INDIGO’s STANCE
It is submitted that IndiGo has 100% FOQA records available. This can be checked at any time. In this regard, we treat the issue closed.

6)There were total 35 FDTL exceedances from January to 20th November, 2011, out of which eight were due to midnight landing.

INDIGO’s STANCE
These FDTL’s exceedances occur due to unavoidable circumstances such as weather, traffic congestion and flight diversions. Whenever such instances occur, we provide additional rest to the crew to prevent fatigue and the same have been reported to DGCA on regular basis. None of these were planned FDTL exceedances. The open query stands answered and closed.

7) Shortage of pilot Instructor/Examiners and backlog of trainings

INDIGO’s STANCE
We have consciously “over hired’ pilots, especially highly trained and experienced pilots and Training Captains more than the normal hiring ratios. IndiGo presently has strength of 50 Training Captains, and have an additional 44 number of Training Captains are in process of being hired or qualified as trainers.

In addition to the above 50 Training Captains, IndiGo is presently using DGCA authorized Indian and Expats Training Captains on FAT, Airbus Training captains as part of the support team. Training Captains at location outside India with CAE under exclusive agreement, Training Captains of CTC, UK (DGCA authorized).

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NTSB issues urgent safety recommendation for General Electric CF6-45/50 engines

The United States National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has issued two urgent safety recommendations affecting General Electric CF6-45/50 engines.

This engine is found mostly on cargo aircraft like Airbus A300s (now retired by Air India), Boeing 747s, DC-10s, MD-11s, and U.S. Air Force KC-10 tankers. However, there is a case involving a passenger Boeing 747-300 of Saudi Arabian Airlines.

The NTSB bulletin details the failure and four incidents

All recommendations apply to the low pressure turbine (LPT) stage 3 (S3) rotor disk in the General Electric (GE) CF6-45/50 series turbofan engines that can fail unexpectedly when excited by high-pressure (HP) rotor unbalance.

An uncontained engine event occurs when an engine failure results in fragments of rotating engine parts penetrating and exiting through the engine case. Uncontained turbine engine disk failures within an aircraft engine present a direct hazard to an airplane and its passengers because high-energy disk fragments can penetrate the cabin or fuel tanks, damage flight control surfaces, or sever flammable fluid or hydraulic lines. Engine cases are not designed to contain failed turbine disks. Instead, the risk of uncontained disk failure is mitigated by designating disks as safety-critical parts, defined as the parts of an engine whose failure is likely to present a direct hazard to the aircraft.

In its safety recommendations to the FAA, the NTSB cited four foreign accidents, which the NTSB is either investigating or participating in an investigation led by another nation, in which the aircraft experienced an uncontained engine failure of its GE CF6-45/50 series engine.

The date, location, and circumstances of these four events (none had injuries or fatalities) are as follows:

• On July 4, 2008, a Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) Boeing 747-300 experienced an engine failure during initial climb after takeoff from Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. This investigation has been delegated to the NTSB.

• On March 26, 2009, an Arrow Cargo McDonnell Douglas DC-10F, about 30 minutes after takeoff from Manaus, Brazil, experienced loss of oil pressure in one engine. The pilots shut down the engine and diverted to Medellin, Columbia. This investigation has been delegated to the NTSB.

• On December 17, 2009, a Jett8 Cargo Boeing 747-200F airplane was passing through 7,000 feet above ground level (agl) when the flight crewmembers heard a muffled explosion and immediately applied left rudder. With one engine losing oil pressure, the airplane returned to land at Changi, Singapore. The NTSB is participating in the investigation that is being led by the Air Accident Investigation Bureau of Singapore.

• On April 10, 2010, an ACT Cargo Airbus A300B4 experienced an engine failure while accelerating for takeoff at Manama, Bahrain. The crew declared an emergency, rejected the takeoff, activated the fire suppression system, and evacuated the airplane. The NTSB is participating in the investigation that is being led by the Bahrain Ministry of Transportation - Civil Aviation.

The full safety bulletin is available here. The NTSB safety recommendation letter to the Federal Aviation Administration with all four safety recommendations in PDF format can be found here.

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FAA issues airworthiness directive mandating third A330 A340 inertial navigation fault fix

The United States Federal Aviation Administration today issued a final airworthiness directive (AD) instructing operators of most Airbus A330 and A340 models to power down suspect air data inertial reference units (ADIRU) using one specific rotary dial on the panel.

The mandate follows EASA Emergency AD 2008-0225-E of December 18, 2008, which superseded EASA Emergency AD 2008-0203-E of November 19, 2008, issued after a Qantas Airways A330-300 pitched down unexpectedly while in cruise at flight level 370, seriously injuring 14 of the 303 passengers.

The Airbus A340 is also affected due to its cockpit similarity to the A330.

Read the directive here.

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EASA issues updated emergency airworthiness directive regarding Airbus A330 and A340 ADIRU issues

The Aviation Herald is reporting the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued an updated Emergency Airworthiness Directive (EAD) 2009-0012-E following two incidents involving Qantas Airbus A330 and A340.

These incidents were attributed to Air Data Inertial Reference Unit #1 (ADIRU-1) providing erroneous data. The EAD recognizes additional failure modes, that have been discovered in the meantime.

EAD 2009-0012-E : Navigation – Air Data Inertial Reference Unit (ADIRU) – Operational Procedure, requires flight crews of the Airbus A330 and A340, who experience failures by one of the three ADIRUs on board of their aircraft not to limit their actions to turning off the affected ADIRU off, but to completely de-energize it under all circumstances by selecting the IR mode rotary to OFF.

A first EAD 2008-225-E had been issued on December 18th 2008 following an inflight upset of a Qantas Airbus A330-300 near Learmonth on Oct 7th 2008. During this event a faulty ADIRU-1 had transmitted randomly faulty data producing unjustified stall and overspeed warnings prompting the airplane's systems to pull the airplane into a dive. Disengaging the ADIRU did not stop the faulty ADIRU from transmitting such faulty data. The resulting EAD required the crews to verify, whether the disengagement of the ADIRU was followed by the OFF light to illuminate and in case of this light not appearing to de-energize the ADIRU.

A second incident occured to another Qantas Airbus A330-300 near Perth on December 27th 2008 leading to the disconnection of the autopilot, but without an inflight upset. The emergency directive now suggests, that the crew, following the first version 2008-225-E of the emergency directive received the OFF light for their ADIRU-1, however, the ADIRU-1 still did not disconnect and continued to supply faulty data.

The full Emergency Airworthiness Directive is available here.

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Transport Canada issues Airworthiness Directive for CRJ-100 CRJ-200

Aviation Herald is reporting that

Transport Canada, the Canadian Ministry acting as Aviation Authority, have issued Airworthiness Directive (AD) CF-2008-33R1 on Jan 9th 2009, which addresses the issue of frequent flaps problems encountered on Canadair Regionaljets CRJ-100 and CRJ-200. The airworthiness directive was adopted by the European Aviation Safety Agency EASA on January 13th 2009.

The directive states: "An excessive wear condition was identified regarding end-play between the flap actuator and ball screw. Excessive wear of the screw and ball nut could potentially lead to a flap system jam."

The airworthiness directive replaces an earlier directive CF-2008-33, which had been issued on November 5th 2008.

The Aviation Herald had counted 16 incidents involving flaps problems on CRJ-200s during December 2008 and January 2009 (to date), which raised significant concerns, as stuck flaps produce higher landing speeds, increased required landing distances and thus pose additional risks.

The Aviation Herald asked Bombardier for comment on the flaps issue in early January, however received no reply to date.

In India, JetLite (formerly Air Sahara) operates seven CRJ-200.

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