Social media leads to friction between airlines NTSB and FAA

A Wall Street journal article from 26 August 2013 highlighted the increasingly role social media tools like Twitter are playing in recent airline accidents in the US, leading to some friction between airline officials, the NTSB, and the FAA. In the article, Tim Logan, the senior risk management official at Southwest Airlines, expressed frustrations that speed at which information is released after an accident has led to problems like a lack of coordination between the FAA and the NTSB during an accident investigation, specifically the 22 July 2013 Southwest landing accident in New York.

Logan is not the only airline industry voice with concerns about the speed of information flows to the public. On 8 July 2013, just two days after the of an Asiana 777 in San Francisco, the Airline Pilots Association (ALPA) sent out a press release stating that the organization was "stunned by the amount of detailed operational data from on-board recorders released by the National Transportation Safety Board," saying also that the amount of information released during the field portion of the investigation was unprecedented.

NTSB post accident policies on information
The speed at which NTSB releases information is part of their normal policy. On its web site, the NTSB states that after an accident, it strives to conduct two press conferences a day when on scene, where Board's spokespersons discuss factual, documented information about the accident. The NTSB may remain on site for up to a week, and they may also have several public affairs specialist to handle media requests.

Media involvement past and present
While the NTSB's policies with respect to being transparent and providing factual information to the public in the early stages of an investigation has not changed over the last few decades, the media realities are far different from the past. A little as a generation ago, only the largest media organizations had the resources needed to send video to viewers around the world, and most people had to wait until the following day's newspapers to get photos and interviews from those involved in the accident. Because of these kind of limitations, it could take days or weeks before minute details of an accident would be available to the public.

Compare the past with the present, where it takes little more than a YouTube or Twitter account (both available for free) for any individual or group to communicate with the entire world within seconds. Anyone interested in an accident can choose from a wide range of resources for information, and can get plenty of information directly from the investigating authorities unfiltered and without delay.

NTSB and social media
A 23 July 2013 article published by Twitter quoted an NTSB official stated that sending out tweets after an accident is standard NTSB policy because it helps to keep both the media and the public stay informed during an accident investigation.

The Wall Street Journal article discussed how the NTSB's use of Twitter to communicate with the media and the public after an accident has forced other parties involved in investigations, particularly airlines and the FAA, to speed up their responses both the the investigating authorities and to the public. The following chart was taken fro the article, and shows that NTSB sent out 86 tweets in the days after the 6 July 2013 crash of an Asiana 777 (flight 214) in San Francisco, with the largest number (30) sent the day after the crash.

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A search for tweets sent by NTSB (@NTSB) about the crash reveals that many of the tweets contained links to a wealth of information, including photos from the crash site, videos of press conferences, and the number of times the original tweet was retweeted:
Tweets from NTSB containing the word 'Asiana'
Tweets from NTSB containing hashtag #Asiana214
Tweets from NTSB containing the number '214'

Note that the search was conducted on the Twitter search site at search.twitter.com, and as is the case with most search engines, different search terms give different results, so it helps to use various search terms associated with an event.

NTSB uses a variety of social media tools to provide information to the public. In addition to Twitter, NTSB uses Flickr to post high resolution photos from accidents, and also has a YouTube channel where past press conferences can be reviewed at any time. Because all of their published information is in the public domain, anyone can use these photos and interviews without cost, and without first asking permission.

The future has more and not less social media
In spite of the protests about the speed at which the NTSB releases information, it is very likely that the future will see a greater role for social media in accident investigations. In the recent Southwest and Asiana crashes, photos and videos taken by some of the passengers involved in the accidents are being used by the NTSB to help further the investigations.

Perhaps the best description of what the future holds is from a headline from this recent headline from an article from the Airline Passenger Experience Association, "Social media becomes important tool in accident probes whether safety professionals like it or not." The article is about the August 2013 meeting if the International Association of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI), where among other things, an informal poll of the roughly 300 air safety specialists in attendance showed that almost all of them used Twitter. Representatives from the Canadian and German aviation accident investigation agencies, as well as a representative from Southwest Airlines, agreed that information supplied by passengers and other witnesses, and shared online, have helped investigators.

Second NTSB update on Southwest 737 accident at LaGuardia

Earlier this week, the NTSB released a second update on the 22 July 2013 Southwest Airlines flight 345 landing accident at New York's LaGuardia Airport. The accident, which is being handled by the NTSB's Major Investigations Team, resulted in substantial damage to the aircraft.

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Initial press release
The initial NTSB press release on 23 July 2013 stated that the jet's nose landing gear collapsed rearward and upward into the fuselage, damaging the electronics bay. The aircraft was also damaged from sliding over 2,000 feet (610 meters) before coming to rest off to the right side of the runway.

First investigative update
Key findings from the first NTSB investigative update released on 25 July 2013 included the following:

• Evidence from video and other sources was consistent with the nose landing gear making contact with the runway before the main landing gear (this is the reverse of what happens in a normal landing).
• Flaps were set from 30 to 40 degrees about 56 seconds prior to touchdown.
• Altitude was about 32 feet, airspeed was about 134 knots, and pitch attitude was about 2 degrees nose-up approximately 4 seconds prior touchdown.
• At touchdown, the airspeed was approximately 133 knots and the aircraft was pitched down approximately 3 degrees.
• After touchdown, the aircraft came to a stop within approximately 19 seconds.

Second investigative update
Key findings from the second NTSB investigative update released on 6 August 2013 revealed additional information about the accident flight:

• This was the first trip the flight crew had flown together and it was the second leg of the trip.
• The first officer had previous operational experience at LGA, including six flights in 2013.
• The captain had one previous flight into LaGuardia.
• On approach into LaGuardia, the first officer was the pilot flying and the captain was the pilot monitoring.
• The wind changed direction prior to landing, from an 11-knot tailwind when the aircraft was at 1,000 feet, to an 11-knot headwind at landing.
• The aircraft had been cleared for an ILS approach on runway 4 (see diagram below).
• The crew reported the airplane was on speed, course and glideslope down to about 200-400 feet.
• At some point above 400 feet, there was an exchange of control of the airplane and the captain became the flying pilot and made the landing.
• The NTSB has so far found no mechanical anomalies or aircraft malfunctions, and that a preliminary examination of the nose landing gear indicated that it failed due to stress overload.
• The NTSB has collected five videos showing various aspects of the crash landing. The team will be analyzing these recordings as part of the investigation.

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Photos: NTSB, Wikipedia

Key safety and technology trends affecting airline passengers

The last few weeks has seen the world media pay a tremendous amount of attention airline safety issues, especially in the wake of the fatal crash landing of Asiana flight 214 in San Francisco on 6 July 2013 and the landing incident on 22 July 2013 involving a Southwest Airlines 737 in New York. These two events have actually highlighted several of the key safety trends in aviation that will likely affect passengers not only in the US, but around the world.

How the crash of an Asiana 777 demonstrated improvements in aircraft
This accident represented not only the first fatal accident involving the 777, but the first fatal accident involving a large jet airliner in the US in almost 12 years. Perhaps more significant was that an accident that resulted in significant damage to the aircraft and a post-crash fire resulted in only three fatalities.

777 accident in San Francisco

While luck plays a part in any fatal accident with survivors, perhaps a more significant role was played by improvements in aircraft design and crew procedures that have occurred over the last few decades, including the following:

• Aircraft designs that minimize the risk of rupturing fuel tanks when landing gear are sheared away,
• Cabin materials that are designed to be both more fire resistant and less prone to give off dangerous fumes if they do catch fire,
• Passenger seats that are designed to withstand greater crash forces,
• Crew training that emphasizes coordination of cabin crew and flight crew actions during emergencies, and
• Stricter requirements for passenger evacuation to allow the evacuation of a full aircraft in 90 seconds or less, even if half of the exits are not useable.

How safe is flying?
Since the beginning of large scale airline operations, and especially in the last 30 years, the risks of flying, specifically the risk of a fatal event that kills passengers, has steadily decreased, and the likelihood of survival increasing, in part through innovations in technology and procedures. These improvements are happening because of deliberate efforts by the aviation community and the governments that regulate aviation to identify risks and find ways to eliminate them, make them less likely to occur, or lessen the effects of unwanted outcomes like plane crashes.

Working on the important risks
Aircraft manufacturers, international aviation organizations, and government regulators regularly share information on where the major problems are and what steps have to be taken to address them. The two recent accidents in the US, both of which are being investigated by the NTSB, will be part of this sharing process. They were both landing related accidents, which happens to be a area of high interest among airline manufacturers, airlines, and regulatory authorities.

The findings of the investigation, as well as any recommended changes to technology or procedures, will be provided not only to the organizations involved in the accidents, but to the general public, and will likely contribute to future changes to airline industry, changes that will make these kinds of accidents less likely.

How technology puts power in the hands of the people
The recent accidents in San Francisco and New York were also examples of how technology in the hands of passengers and the public has radically changed the relationship the public has with the airlines. In both cases, news of the accidents, including photos and videos, went out not only through traditional news media, but also through Twitter, YouTube, Vine, and other social media applications. In the case of the crash in San Francisco, the NTSB used Twitter and YouTube to put photos, press conferences, and other information from the investigation online, allowing any interested person to get the information direct from the source, without waiting for traditional media to filter the content.

737 landing accident at LaGuardia

Other key technology trends
The growth in the availability of affordable and portable online access continues to be a reality in virtually all areas of the globe. While it is impossible to say where that technology is going, it is clear that there are several areas where this technology has made a huge difference to airline passengers compared to ten or even five years ago:

• Allow for easy ticket price comparisons and ticket purchases online,
• Provide personalized in-flight entertainment,
• Provide passengers with the means to document accidents, incidents, and poor airline customer service, and to share it with the world, and
• Allow passengers to access a full range of information about an airline 24 hours a day.

Perhaps the greatest change for passengers is that the existence of the Internet makes the entire aviation system much more transparent to everyone. When accidents occur, the news flashes around the world in seconds. It has become very difficult for an airline, aircraft manufacturer, or government agency to hide the truth about their activities from the public, either because someone publishes a photo or other information that reveals the truth, or because information such as accident and incident data that used to be very difficult for the public to find is now much easier to find.

This last point may not be important to airline passengers who live in countries with a free and open press where critical reporting on the activities of governments and corporations in the norm. In many parts of the world, especially countries where there has been a rapid increase in the standard of living and much greater access to air travel services, having the ability to find information from sources that are not controlled by their government, especially information about airlines that are often partly or completely controlled by their government, would be next to impossible without access to the Internet.

NTSB launches investigation of Southwest Airlines LaGuardia accident

22 July 2013;Southwest Airlines 737-700; flight 345; LaGuardia Airport, New York, NY: The airliner, with 145 passengers and five crew members on board, was on a scheduled flight from Nashville, TN to New York, had a problem after landing which led to a collapsed nose landing gear and a runway excursion.

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After the aircraft came to a stop in a grassy area adjacent to the runway, the occupants evacuated the aircraft using the emergency slides. Nine of the occupants were treated for minor injuries, and no one was serious injured or killed.

The NTSB has launched a formal investigation of this accident, and has already begun processing the information from the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder. While this is not a major investigation on the scale of what is happening with Asiana flight 214, this will be a more extensive investigation than what would normally happen after a typical landing gear accident. This is likely because of the level of damage caused by this event.

As can be seen in the photo below, the nose landing gear not only collapsed, it was also pushed up into the electronics bay beneath the cockpit.

Why so much media attention to this accident? While the response of the NTSB is typical for this kind of accident, the media response is not. While it did not garner the kind of nonstop coverage that happened on major cable news shows after the Asiana crash, it has two qualities that are often associated with high levels of media coverage of airline events:

• It involved a major US airline, and
• It occurred in New York, the most influential media market in the US, and arguably in the the entire English-speaking world.

The last point is possibly the most important since not only do many US news and broadcast media organizations have headquarters in New York, many of the people who work at those organizations use the airport where the accident occurred. Had the same event occurred at a US airport that was not in a major media market, it is unlikely that this event would have led to much media coverage.

Additional resources
Previous Southwest events

Photo: NTSB; Video: Bobby Abtahi

How old is the aircraft that you are flying?

The recent emergency landing of a Southwest Airlines 737 due to a fuselage rupture has once again brought the issue of aging aircraft to the public attention. The NTSB investigation into the Southwest incident has pointed to unexpected and unseen metal fatigue on some models of the 737 as a potential safety issue, and the FAA, along with Boeing, have developed procedures to address the problem.

When you fly, you may not know in advance how old your aircraft is, but you can get an idea of how old the airline's fleet is. Using data from a number of sources, AirSafe.com has upgraded its page Average Fleet Age for Selected Airlines to include links to detailed aircraft aging information for dozens of large airlines around the world. The data, based on research performed by the site AirFleets.net, provides the average age of an airline's fleet, as well as the average age for particular aircraft models within that airline's fleet.

For example, for Southwest Airlines, which flies several models of the 737, the average fleet age is 15 years, with their older 737 models (737-300 and 737-500) averaging 19.2 years and the newer models (737-700) averaging 12.6 years.

Below are some average fleet ages in years for selected US airlines:

airTran - 7.3
Alaska Airlines 8.0
American Airlines - 15.0
American Eagle - 9.7
Continental Airlines - 9.5
Delta Airlines - 14.5
JetBlue Airways - 5.4
Southwest Airlines 14.3
United Airlines - 14.3
US Airways - 12.3

Compare those figures with selected airlines from outside the US:

Aeromexico.htm - 7.0
AirAsia - 3.4
Air China - 7.6
Air Canada - 10.5
Air France - 9.1
British Airways - 11.9
Ethiopian Airlines 9.9
Japan Airlines - 10.8
KLM - 10.7
Lufthansa - 13.2
Qantas - 11.9

For a more complete list, including information for different models within those fleets, please visit AirSafe.com.

Passenger arrested after exposing himself on Southwest flight

Earlier this week, a passenger on a Southwest Airlines flight was accused, in the words of an FBI agent, with "making an obscene and indecent exposure of his person, and a lewd, obscene, and indecent act" while on a Southwest Airlines aircraft. Southwest flight 228 was in route from Philadelphia, PA to Denver, CO on March 1st, when during the flight, male passenger is alleged to have exposed himself and masturbated next to a female passenger. That female passenger had no prior relationship with the accused passenger.

Federal Jurisdiction and Crimes Aboard Aircraft
For the gory details, please review the criminal complaint which provides more than enough details to paint a nauseating picture of what went on in the aircraft. Many criminal acts that occur on airliners fall under federal jurisdiction, including the alleged behavior of the Southwest passenger, and those convicted of those criminal acts would be punished accordingly. The maximum penalty in this case is 90 days in jail and a $5,000 fine. The passenger was released on bond yesterday, and has been ordered not to fly.

What to do if this happens to you
The passenger in this Southwest incident did the right thing. She contacted a flight attendant, and the cabin crew took steps to isolate the accused passenger, and made sure that the passenger was arrested after the aircraft landed. If something like this happens to you, or if you suspect that it is happening to someone else on the flight, take action and inform a flight attendant, and if necessary move to another part of the aircraft.

What happens after an event like this depends on where you are. Most countries have laws very similar to that of the US, and it is likely that the offending passenger will be arrested and charged with a crime. In other countries, the story may be completely different, and the police may not take any interest at all. If you come across a situation where a passenger was behaving inappropriately, and no action was taken, about the only thing you can do is make others aware of your situation. You can send a complaint to the airline, the government agency responsible for regulating that airline, or even to the AirSafe.com Complaint System.

Unaccompanied children and travel risks
Children who are traveling alone are particularly vulnerable to the kind of abuse that occurred on the Southwest flight. Unaccompanied children, like all passengers, have no control over who is assigned to an adjacent seat. You should tell the child to contact a flight attendant and change seats if he or she feels threatened by someone sitting near them.

In general, the parent or other adult who is arranging travel for that child should be aware of airlines rules on unaccompanied children, or take other steps that will make your child's trip safer.

Photo credit: Matt Coleman

Airlines Fined for Stranding Passengers Plus The Best Passenger Safety Briefing Ever

Three Airlines Fined for Stranding Passengers Overnight
Earlier this year on August 8th, Continental Express Flight 2816, which was en route from Houston to Minneapolis and carrying 47 passengers, was diverted to Rochester, Minnesota because of thunderstorms where it landed about 12:30 am. The passengers and crew ended up stranded on the aircraft for over seven hours because the terminal had already closed for the night, and the employees who could have opened the terminal refused to do so.

This event attracted national attention at the time, and the US Department of Transportation (DOT) announced yesterday that it would impose $175,000 in fines on the three airlines involved. Continental Airlines and its regional airline partner ExpressJet, which operated the flight for Continental, were each fined $50,000. Mesaba Airlines, which was responsible for operating the terminal at Rochester, Minnesota, was fined $75,000.

This was the first time that the DOT has fined airlines for stranding passengers on the tarmac, but by no means was this the first time that passengers have been stuck on the tarmac for long periods of time. Earlier this month, AirSafeNews.com had an article about the delay statistics made available by the DOT's Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The Best Passenger Safety Briefing Ever
When it comes to preflight passenger safety briefings, most passengers have sat through many of them, and most of them are not the least bit entertaining or memorable. The FAA does not dictate what information airlines should provide passengers during the preflight safety briefing. However, the FAA provides general guidance in Advisory Circular 121-24C, where one of the suggestions is that "The pretakeoff oral briefing should be given so that each passenger can clearly hear it and easily see required demonstrations. Flight attendants giving these briefings should speak slowly and distinctly."

Flight attendant David Holmes of Southwest Airlines created a preflight passenger briefing that ignored the advice about speaking slowly, and was both entertaining and memorable.

National Geographic Traveler published an extensive interview with David Holmes where he talked about his in-flight rapping. The following question and answer is the highlight of that interview.

National Geographic Traveler - The Federal Aviation Administration has some pretty strict requirements about in-flight safety announcements. How did you ensure that you met those, while still maintaining your artistic integrity?

David Holmes - Everything we have to say is carefully scripted for us -- all the safety information. As you know, one challenge is getting people to listen -- the other is making sure they have all the info. Why shouldn't it be fun?

Why not indeed.

How Much Does a Pilot Make?

Airline pilots are a highly trained and very closely regulated group of professionals who have the lives of their passengers and crew in their hands every time they fly. Both the flying public and professional pilots often wonder how much these professionals get paid for their expertise and experience.

For many airlines, especially those in the US, pilots negotiate with their airlines to determine how much flight crew members get paid. One web site, TalkAirline.com has put the pilot contracts and pay rates for many airlines in one convenient place. There you can find out that first year first officer at Colgan Air makes $21 per hour with a guaranteed minimum of $1,575 per month (about as much as an army private), while the most well-paid senior captain at Southwest makes $198 per hour with a guaranteed minimum of $15,444 per month (about as much as a four-star general).

The next time you fly, think about how much, or how little, the folks in the front of the plane are making.

Note: 2009 military pay data from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service.