Aviation Incidents in Today’s News!

July 21, 2024
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Aviation Incidents in Today’s News!

Aviation Incidents in Today's News!

Cap'n Aux's Take on Current Events

Folks, from the Flight Blog, this is Cap’n Aux checking in with you.

Lately, we’ve had a spate of aviation stories garnering a lotta headlines. So, I thought I’d briefly muse over some of the issues raised by these stories.

Disclaimer

Throughout this post, I will do my best to approach these stories from a perspective of safety, clarifying any possible misnomers, and analyzing how to mitigate future issues.
At NO TIME will I be, nor do I intend to be, pointing fingers, or Monday morning quarterbacking anyone’s decisions or actions. We will merely approach these incidents from the perspective of learning from them to enhance aviation safety.
Finally, I rely solely on news reports, not actual investigation data. As we all know, the Press is notoriously ignorant and error-ridden when it comes to aviation stories, so it’s very possible I’m commenting on, well, let’s call it “Disinformation!”

Aviation Incidents in Today's News!

1.Inflight Near Miss

On July 8, 2024, a Syracuse PD Dashcam posted online appeared to show two planes nearly colliding in midair.

When I first saw a screenshot from the video, I poo-pooed it as an optical illusion. With our near-two-dimensional vision, it’s easy to see two objects inflight as looking close together, when they’re actually miles apart.

However, this one does indeed appear to have been a very close call.

Preliminary reports point toward possible controller error, when one plane was cleared to land (PSA 5511, a Bombardier CRJ-700) on the same runway that another was cleared for takeoff (Endeavor Air 5421, another CRJ-700). When the error was caught, the landing aircraft was instructed to “go around,” or abort the landing and climb back out (a standard procedure).

Note: Either or both jets could be a CRJ-700 or -900, depending on the news report you read!

However, the close call came when both planes’ paths came harrowingly close to each other—perhaps as close as 725 feet, according to some news reports.

Fortunately, both aircraft continued to their destinations without further incident.

Points to Emphasize

While not much more is known of this incident at this time (by me, anyway), I can speculate on some safety points.

The error was apparently made by the controller, but it was also caught, or “trapped,” as we say in Aviation safety lexicon. That allowed the controller to alter his/her instructions.
The pilots queried controllers when there was confusion about the clearances; always a good thing to do in moments of confusion.
Both planes most likely had onboard TCAS, or Terminal Collision Avoidance Systems (required in airliners), which would communicate directly with each other’s plane and come up with a solution to avoid impact—that is, instructing one plane to climb, and the other to descend.
Further, the pilots would be able to not only visually spot each other, but also alter course to avoid each other as well. Moreover, the controller could issue course instructions as well.

TAKEAWAYS

While the aviation skies get increasingly crowded, advances in technology such as Radar and TCAS have increased safety along with it. However, mistakes do get made, and incidents do occur. It’s up to the pilots—and controllers—to continue to do what they do best: operate safely.

Further Reading:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/faa-deems-american-eagle-delta-connection-mitsubishi-crj900s-were-separated-despite-flying-725-feet-from-each-other/ar-BB1pTwMV

30+ Years of "Aviation Incidents!"

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Better yet, check out all the adventures at https://www.amazon.com/Eric-Auxier/e/B00971H8VW

Aviation Incidents in Today's News!

Microsoft Meltdown

July 19, 2024, saw a global meltdown of not only aviation systems, but many other business systems such as healthcare and financial facilities as well.

All due to…a software glitch by the company “Crowdstrike!”

"As of Friday afternoon there were over 7,000 delays and around 2,400 cancellations in the U.S., according to flight tracking site FlightAware. Globally, the outage has caused nearly 4,000 cancellations, and nearly 34,000 delays, according to the latest data from Cirium."

Skift.com

It continues to boggle the mind that such a seemingly minor incident could cause such a major impact.

One wonders whether these systems, along with our fragile power grid, can be just as easily deliberately exploited in future cyber warfare, or patched up ahead of time. Perhaps this was the “shot across the bow” that we needed to patch things up…

Battlestar Microsoftica

In the great Sci fi series Battlestar Galactica (the dramatic reboot, not the campy original), the Cylons exploited human’s interstellar cybergrid to destroy them. Only the aging “analog” Galactica Battlestar, which wasn’t tied into the grid, was saved from their thermonuclear cyber warfare attack.

Could we be not too far behind this same situation?

Trivial Tidbit: It appears that Southwest Airlines was this week’s “Galactica,” having been saved from The Glitch:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tedreed/2024/07/20/meltdown-what-meltdown-southwest-flew-on-time-all-day/

The good new is that, despite major advances in digital cockpit technology such as we talked about above, the two human brains in the cockpit up front continue to command the skies…for now.

GPS signals, for example, may beam down from low earth orbit to help with navigation, but they don’t fly the plane for the pilots.

GPS signals can—and are—”spoofed,” but backup nav systems aid in redundancy to keep us safe in the skies.

Robot is My Copilot?

Such a meltdown over a simple line of code (perhaps more complex than this, but not by much!) makes one wonder whether AI (Artificial Intelligence) is anywhere near ready for prime time in the aviation cockpit.

By my estimation, we are still a solid 50 years minimum away from a pilotless, AI-only cockpit.

TAKEAWAYS

While technology and AI has, by and large, advanced aviation safety by leaps and bounds, Artificial Intelligence remains just that: Artificial.
Remember, computers may be able to process faster than the human brain…but they can’t think.
Nothing beats a couple of human biological processing units, with thousands of hours of experience and judgement, up front.

Further Reading:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/global-aviation-grinds-to-halt-as-united-delta-stop-operations/ar-BB1qgj5o#fullscreen

Aviation Incidents in Today's News!

Severely (Un)Friendly Skies

An Air Europa flight encountered severe turbulence recently, resulting in 30 “minor” injuries—and one man apparently stuck in an overhead bin!

TAKEAWAYS

This is a simple one:

Keep your seatbelts fastened, regardless of the seatbelt sign position!! I say these exact words on EVERY flight! It is rare, but you never know when it will hit.
Short of deliberately flying through a severe thunderstorm or hurricane, the plane is stronger than the bumps you will encounter. It may become the scariest rollercoaster ride you’ve ever been on, but you are, believe it or not, safe!
No, turbulence is not getting worse due to Global Climate Change. There’s simply more flights in the air around the world at any given moment.

Further Reading:

https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/02/world/video/boeing-turbulence-air-europa-brazil-madrid-uruguay-digvid

Aviation Incidents in Today's News!

And, the Hits Just Keep on Comin'!

Unruly passengers continue to mar the “Severely (Un)Friendly Skies.”

Good Lord, here’s a passel of separate stories just from the past couple of weeks!

Drunk Passengers Cause Mayhem Inflight https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/drunk-passengers-cause-mayhem-on-flight-after-bringing-own-booze/ar-BB1qhkFm
Passenger Bites Chunk out of Flight Attendant https://nypost.com/2024/07/11/lifestyle/passenger-bites-chunk-out-of-flight-attendants-uniform-on-united-plane/
Passengers Fight Over Seat Causing Turnback https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/passengers-got-into-an-argument-about-switching-seats-that-was-so-heated-that-their-ryanair-flight-had-to-turn-back-after-just-a-few-minutes/ar-BB1pFfzg
Passenger Punched by Drunk Man on Flight https://timesofmalta.com/article/passenger-punched-drunk-man-flight-paris-malta.1095386
Drunk Man Urinates in Aisle Mid-Flight https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/drunk-american-airlines-passenger-exposes-himself-urinates-in-planes-aisle-6091306

What’s the world coming to?

Since Covid divided the globe into mask wearers and mask deniers, it seems everyone’s gone off the deep end. Like it or not, US airlines were forced to enforce silly mask rules onboard, which led to a massive spike in passenger behavior issues.

While I hated having to enforce these draconian—and now proven ineffective—mask rules, just like anything on an airliner, a passenger must comply with crew member instructions, or face expulsion.

People, behave! It’s only for a few hours till you get to your destination. You can handle a little discomfort! Remember, a scant more than a century ago, we crossed the country via covered wagon!

TAKEAWAYS

Another easy one!

DON’T!
Do your best to deescalate any potential situation. We’re all hurtling in a metal tube through the skies at near-Mach speeds, and space is limited. But, so is our time in said tube. Patience!
Go easy on the booze. Remember, you’re now in a cabin with an atmospheric pressure of a high mountain village, so the effects of alcohol are enhanced!
DO stay vigilant for inappropriate behavior onboard. When an incident pops up, such as an altercation, it may be a distraction for other nefarious ends. Sadly, with our borders wide open and unknown masses of people flying without identification, it may be only a matter of time before the bad guys try to exploit the situation.
That said, DON’T be spring-loaded to pounce on any strangely-behaving bloke. S/he may be just having a bad day, and forgot to take those meds!
Unless called upon by crew to help out, let the crew members take care of the situation.

For those of you still on the fence about behaving on an airplane, here’s a good article about the dreaded, “No Fly List!”:

https://simpleflying.com/no-fly-lists-aviation-guide/

Aviation Incidents in Today's News!

Hemisphere Adventures

While I’ve had a few fun trips to London and Sydney as of late, not a lot to report on the Hemispherical Dancing.

That said, I’m excited to inform you that I finally got my dream wish come true: later this month and next month, I’m scheduled to fly to Tokyo Haneda Airport!

I’ve always dreamed of flying my jetliner to Japan, one of my all-time favorite destinations. I can’t wait to visit my old college roommate buddy Akira, see some sights, practice the rusty college Japanese, and slam some serious sake—er, I mean, sushi!

Needless to say, I’m besides myself with excitement at the prospect. So, stand by for a possible next post entitled, “A Passage to Tokyo!”