That warning comes after the Federal Aviation Administration and the general aviation industry conducted a study, which found that many fatal general aviation plane crashes recently have been linked to medication use. According to the study, as many as pilots, who were impaired by the use of medications, caused 12% of these plane crashes.

In fact, the federal administration was so concerned from the findings of the study that it immediately shot off a warning letter to more than 600,000 general aviation pilots across the country. The federal alert clearly warns these pilots about the dangerous side effects of many of the medications that they may take without being aware of the side effects.

For instance, it is common knowledge that antihistamines, over-the-counter cold medications and many others commonly used medications to treat coughs and colds do include drowsiness as one of the side effects. This drowsiness can be serious enough to impair a person’s flying abilities, and the effect may last for several hours after the drug has been taken. The alert warns pilots to look at the side effects of taking a medication, and to be on the safer side, wait for five times the dosing interval before they re-enter the cockpit.

The post Feds Warn Pilots of Side Effects from Medication Use appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

The Federal Aviation Administration recently released new qualification standards for first officers, or co-pilots.  The new rules will require a minimum of 1,500 hours of total flying time for the pilot, and include a requirement that the person obtains an Airline Transport Pilot certificate. 

According to the new standards that were released recently by new Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, pilots will also be required to obtain aircraft-type rating which will require additional training.  They will also undergo specific testing for different types of aircraft.

The new standards are a result of concern over co-pilot flying standards after the Colgan Air crash in Buffalo, New York back in 2009.  Fifty people were killed in the plane crash, when the plane went down near Buffalo.  Investigations later found that pilot error and miscommunication contributed to the crash. 

Under the new federal rule, a pilot must have logged in 1,000 hours of flight hours serving as a co-pilot in an air carrier operation before he serves as a captain for an airline.  In order to obtain an Airline Transport Pilot certificate, the pilot must also have clocked in 50 hours of multi-engine flight experience, and must have completed a new federally approved pilot training program. 

Pilots with fewer than 1,500 hours of flight time, or below the minimum age of 23 can obtain a Restricted Privileges Airline Transport Pilot Certificate.  With this certificate, the person can serve as a co-pilot until he accumulates the 1,500 hours of flight time necessary under the new criterion.  Certain persons including military pilots who have clocked in at least 750 hours as a pilot, graduates with a bachelor’s degree in aviation and 1,000 hours of total time as pilots, graduates with an associate’s degree in an aviation major with 1,250 hours as pilots, and pilots, who are at least 21 years of age and have clocked 1,500 flight hours, may be eligible for the Restricted Privileges certificate.

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The pilot, Kolbjorn Jarle Kristiansen was arrested at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.  Airport officers and Transportation Security Administration officers at the airport noticed that something was amiss when they smelt alcohol as they walked past a group of at least 4 pilots. The officers decided to administer alcohol tests to each of the 4 pilots, and the tests revealed that Kristiansen’s level was .107, which is more than double the legally permissible alcohol level for pilots.

The pilot has been charged in court with several counts relating to attempting to operate a plane under the influence of alcohol, and if convicted, he could be sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail, and fined up to$3,000.

According to the officers who administered the test, when they approached the pilot, they noticed that he showed very visible signs of intoxication.  In other words, California plane crash lawyers do not believe that this was a pilot who had reported to work after having had just a glass of wine.  His eyes were glassy and watery, and he was also very slow in responding to the officers’ questions, indicating that he was intoxicated.  Later, he admitted to the officers that he had had some alcohol beverages the night before, but planned to operate the flight.

He was initially submitted to a preliminary alcohol test, and later a blood test was conducted which revealed that his blood alcohol level was .09.  The legally permissible limit of alcohol in a pilot’s system is .04, which means that any pilot trying to operate a flight with more than this amount of alcohol in his system is violating the law.

The post American Eagle Pilot Charged after Failing Alcohol Test appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

The first helicopter crash occurred in Iowa, when a Med Trans medical helicopter crashed in a field.  All the people on the helicopter were killed in the crash.  The helicopter had been on its way to pick up a patient at the time.

Just a few hours earlier, another medical helicopter crashed near Seminole, Oklahoma, injuring all 4 people on board the flight.  There was no patient on the flight at the time.

As California plane crash lawyers expected, these 2 crashes have once again raised concern at federal levels.  The federal administration has been concerned about medical helicopter safety since 2006, when there was an increase in the number of such crashes reported from around the country.  Between January 2002 and January 2005, an estimated 54 people died in 55 medical helicopter crashes.

Medical helicopter flights are operated under great pressure, and there’s a lot of stress on the crew.  This makes these flights inherently dangerous.  Additionally, medical helicopters often travel during nighttime, in poor visibility and in bad weather – all conditions that are right for a plane crash.

However, in spite of the federal administration’s focus on this issue, the number of people dying in these accidents continued to rise.  In 2010, there were 16 fatalities in medical helicopter crashes, and in 2011, 3 people died in these crashes.  Last year, there were 3 fatalities in medical helicopter crashes.  The number of crashes and fatalities has declined over the past 4 years, but more can be done to ensure that patients and passengers who are using these flights are safer.

The post Focus on Medical Helicopter Safety after Fatal Crashes appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

California plane crash lawyers find that the problem exists in particular types of planes, especially large aircraft like the Airbus A-380.  In these planes, the pilot has no view of the wingtips of the plane, unless he puts his head out of the cockpit window, which is highly impractical.  The National Transportation Safety Board recommends anti-collision devices like on-board camera systems in order to give pilots a better view of the wingtips, and prevent collisions.  The camera system would work like the “backover” camera system that is now present on some automobiles, in order to give pilots a better view so they can navigate better.

In order to back up its recommendation, the National Transportation Safety Board is citing at least 12 investigations conducted into accidents on the ground since 1993.  According to the Board, these investigations have indicated that the pilots of very large aircraft like the Airbus A-380 are simply not able to see the wingtips from their position in the cockpit.

The Airbus A-380 and some other large aircraft manufactured by Boeing do come with on-board camera systems.  However, the National Transportation Safety Board believes that these camera systems are insufficient to prevent the kind of collisions it has in mind, because the camera systems do not give pilots an unrestricted view of the wingtips.  Some camera systems give pilots a view of the landing gear, but nothing more.

The post NTSB Proposes External Cameras to Reduce Ground Accidents appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

The incident allegedly occurred on July 31, and involved three planes – one of the planes was landing, and 2 planes were taking off.  The air traffic controller had allegedly cleared 2 of the planes for takeoff soon after 2 PM on July 31.  Another plane was due for landing in almost the same path in the opposite direction.  Due to some miscommunication, the plane that was landing came in about 800 vertical feet of one departing plane, and 800 vertical feet of the 2^nd departing plane.

The Federal Aviation Administration has admitted that miscommunication among the air traffic controllers at Washington’s Ronald Reagan National Airport was to blame for this incident.  However, the agency insists that the planes were never on any collision course with each other, and were all headed in different directions at the time.

However, considering the number of near-miss incidents that have been reported in the media recently, federal regulators have taken the issue seriously, and have gone all out to conduct damage control.  Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and the Federal Aviation Administration chiefs held a news conference in Washington, in which they confirmed that there was a “loss of separation” among the 3 planes.  However, they completely deny that the 3 planes were ever in any danger of colliding with each other.

Transportation Secretary LaHood has admitted that this miscommunication with air traffic controllers should never have happened.  The Federal Aviation Administration has launched an investigation into the incident.

The post FAA Investigating Near Miss Aviation Safety Incident near Washington Airport appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

At least 6 people on the ground were also killed in the crash which occurred on June 3 when the plane was making its descent into Lagos Airport.  The National Transportation Safety Board has compiled a report into the crash, which includes an analysis of the fueling of the aircraft.  The analysis has resulted in a negative result.

According to the fueling records, the plane was uplifted with approximately 8000 pounds of fuel just before it departed from Abuja on the day of the crash.  Flight crew confirmed that they had 26,000 pounds of fuel, and all analyses were found to be negative for contamination.

However, the report does point some other possible crash factors to California plane crash lawyers.  Investigators believe that there was engine trouble with the plane before it took off on the day of the tragedy.

The report blames dual engine failure, specifically the loss of 2 engines and non-functionality of the throttles.  The throttles are believed to have failed just as the plane was in its final descent from Abuja to Lagos.  The plane crashed into a neighborhood near the Lagos airport.

According to the investigative reports, the cockpit voice recordings clearly indicate the pilot informing air traffic controllers that he had had lost both engines.  The pilots then continued their efforts to restart the engines, and those efforts seem to have continued until the end of the cockpit recordings when the plane crashed.

The post Dana Air Plane Crash Preliminary Report Indicates No Fuel Contamination appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the incident, which fortunately did not result in any accidents or injuries.  The Southwest Airlines plane had been decelerating on the runway, when it got clearance to turn left.  That placed the plane on a potential collision path with the Learjet, which soon took off.  A potential disaster was averted by the copilot of the Southwest Airlines plane who alerted the pilot to the Learjet.  The pilot was able to stop the plane in time.

The Southwest Airlines pilot alleges that the Learjet was just 67 feet over the Southwest Airlines Boeing 737.  However, according to the investigators, at the closest distance, there was a gap of 287 feet between the 2 planes.

Obviously, there was some kind of misjudgment on the part of the air traffic controller here.  The National Transportation Safety Board has released a preliminary report, which however, does not blame air traffic controller error for this incident.  The National Transportation Safety Board is also investigating why the surface movement detection system which has been installed at Chicago’s Midway Airport failed to detect the potential conflict.  The investigators are looking at whether air traffic controllers had been using the system at the time, or whether it was an operation.

The post NTSB Investigating Southwest Airlines-Learjet Near- Collision at Chicago Airport appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

According to the new rules, pilots will be required to have a 10-hour rest period before they report for duty.  That is in contrast to earlier regulations, which required pilots to have just 8 hours of rest before they reported for duty.  The new rules also include an increase in the number of consecutive free hours that pilots enjoy to 30 hours per week.  According to the Federal Aviation Administration, if a pilot reports that he is tired, then he must be removed from duty.

However, the rule ignores some core issues that are linked to pilot fatigue.  The rule by the Federal Aviation Administration does not attack the root causes of fatigue.  Under the new rules, pilots must take personal responsibility for getting the required amount of rest, and reporting for duty fit and fresh.  That is not always possible especially for regional carrier pilots, because these pilots are typically paid lower salaries, and may not be able to afford housing close to their workstations in the major cities.

A case in point is the crash of a Colgan Air flight in 2009 that killed 50 people, including 49 passengers.  That crash was linked to pilot fatigue, and one of the underlying reasons for the fatigue in that case, was that the pilot and copilot had to travel many hours with little time to sleep, before they could report to their hubs.  According to a study by the National Research Council, approximately 20% of airline pilots in the country lived more than 750 miles from their workstation.  These are complex issues that ultimately contribute to pilot fatigue, and any rule that doesn’t take them into consideration is bound to have a limited impact on safety.

The post FAA Announces New Pilot Fatigue Rules appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.

According to the ad, the incident occurred on June 16, when the pilot was asked to fly a nighttime transatlantic flight.  The pilot refused, because the plane had a faulty electrical system.  Both the backup power sources had failed, and it was simply too risky to fly.  The plane ultimately flew, after repairs were made 7 to 8 hours later.

The US Airline Pilots Association ad offers stinging criticism about the deteriorating safety culture at US Airways.  According to the union, the safety culture at the airline has been on a downward slide since the merger of US Airways with America West in 2005.  Union members have been calling for the resignation of Paul Morrell, the safety chief at US Airways, because they claim he has been contributing to these deteriorating safety standards.

This is not the first time that US Airways labor unions have taken out an ad against the company.  They did this back in 2008, when there was a dispute about pilots being ordered to take off with only the minimum amount of fuel on board.  It is legal to fly with just the bare minimum of fuel on board, but that doesn’t mean that it’s safe.

That’s the point that the pilots are trying to make – that the autocratic style at US Airways overrides the concerns of experienced pilots with decades of experience to their credit, and possibly risking the safety of passengers. US Airways has responded to the ad by calling it a cheap tactic by the labor unions to advance their contract negotiations.

The post US Airways Ad Alleges Unsafe Culture at Airline appeared first on Aviation Lawyer Blog.