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NTSB Board Member Robert Sumwalt, a penalty against Asiana Airlines, A350-900 type certification, the Fisher P-75 Eagle, Jabiru engines, UAV sense and avoid, Etihad growth into Europe, and aircraft at the G20 summit.
Guest
Robert Sumwalt, Board Member, National Transportation Safety Board.
We talk with Robert about the process for being nominated and confirmed as an NTSB Board member, and the roles played by Board members, including being the face to the public for accident investigations, and reviewing and approving investigation reports.
We also talk about the NTSB’s “Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements,” the Board’s function as a court of appeals, and how the Board reaches consensus.
Robert was sworn in as the 37th Member of the NTSB in 2006, and President George W. Bush designated him as Vice Chairman of the Board for a two-year term. Then in 2011, President Barack Obama reappointed Robert to an additional five year term.
Prior to joining the Board, Robert was a pilot for 32 years, including 24 years as an airline pilot with Piedmont Airlines and US Airways. After his airline career, he managed the flight department for a Fortune 500 company. Robert has over 14,000 flight hours and has type ratings in five aircraft.
Robert conducted aviation safety research as a consultant to NASA’s Aviation Safety Reporting System, and he has written extensively on aviation safety matters, having published over 90 articles and papers, as well as co-authoring a book on aircraft accidents.
He holds a Master of Aeronautical Science (with Distinction) from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, specializing in Aviation/Aerospace Safety Systems and Human Factors Aviation Systems.
Follow the NTSB on Twitter at @NTSB.
News
Asiana Airlines Suspends Service to San Francisco
As a penalty for last year’s crash landing at SFO, Asiana Airlines must cease flights from Incheon, South Korea, to San Francisco for 45 days. This comes from the South Korean government. Unless the airline appeals, the flight suspension must take place within six months.
Airbus A350-900 Receives FAA Type Certification
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) previously awarded type certification in September.
David Vanderhoof’s Aircraft of the Week
David explores the Eagle that was a turkey – the Fisher P-75 Eagle. The P-75 was an aircraft so bad it never got into production. However, it spared GM and Fisher Auto Body from producing B-29s, and put them into position after the war of being able to quickly get back into the auto business.
The Australia News Desk
Steve and Grant bring you the Australia Sports Desk report … ooops, hang on, that’s the Australia Aviation News Desk report – sorry about that.
CASA are all but grounding aircraft with Jabiru engines due to 40 engine failures in the past year (representing about 0.03% of all Jabiru movements)
The world’s longest serving commercial 747 pilot has been flying with Qantas since 1969 and will be commanding his final flight as we record. His son will be on board as his copilot
Spotters Mag (www.spottersmag.com) have launched an Australia/New Zealand variant of their online magazine.
Lots of aircraft in Brisbane for the G20 summit, including Air Force One which landed at RAAF Base Amberley bringing President Obama to the event (he ferried from Amberley to Brisbane in the Marine One helicopter).
Rob Mark’s Aviation Minute
Rob asks the question, “how do we safely separate manned and unmanned aircraft?” Sense and avoid doesn’t yet exist for unmanned drones.
Across the Pond
Ethihad 777-300ER A6-ETC Copyright BRIYYZ
Pieter revisits the Middle East with Oussama Salah talking exclusively about Etihad growth into Europe. Oussamas Take Blog.
Mentioned
UK’s NATS Releases A Cool ATC Video
G20 Brisbane: World leaders and their super planes
Credit
Opening and closing music courtesy Brother Love from the Album Of The Year CD. You can find his great music at brotherloverocks.com.
Still, the bogus story on TWA 800… The Milfuegos blog post of July 28, 2014 reports the true story is that TWA flight 800 was struck by a new generation Navy missile test fired from the USS Seawolf, that was intended to strike a drone towed by a Navy P-3 Orion during exercise Global Yankee ’96. ABC News Paris correspondent Pierre Salinger, and four years later the story was confirmed by Reed Irvine.
Charlie: This theory is not supported by the physical evidence. There is no explosive residue from a missile, and there are no inward punctures on the fuselage from a missile air burst near TWA 800.
Visual observations of a streaking missile followed by the sound of an explosion fail in detailed analysis. Light travels faster then sound – that’s why you see lightning first then hear thunder later. The observers saw the trailing jet fuel first, then heard the explosion in the fuel tank which had actually occurred some seconds before that.
We’ve seen the actual TWA 800 at the NTSB training center in Virginia. What happened is quite clear when you look at the center fuel tanks, the damaged bulkheads, and the fuselage breakup pattern along the rivet lines.
While conspiracy theories are sometimes fun to contemplate, you’ll have to look elsewhere.
But nice try.