A Jet Aircraft with a Parachute Recovery System?

Shades of the Apollo program – Cirrus Aircraft is going to enter the VLJ (Very Light Jet) market with an innovative design and its signature safety feature – a parachute recovery system.

 

Imagine flying a jet aircraft at 300 knots and 25,000 feet and – suddenly – something goes wrong and you can no longer control the descent of the aircraft. Well, with the Cirrus jet, known as “the jet”, Cirrus hopes to provide the answer: a parachute recovery system. Just pop the chute and drift down to terra firma. Now this system is nothing new; as I said earlier, it was used for the recovery of manned space capsules and worked quite well. However, it did not appear to help Cory Lidell and his instructor when their Cirrus struck a high rise in New York City.

 

The bigger issue is what is going to happen to the U.S. airspace system as all of these new VLJ’s come on line? Many non-professional pilots have ordered these aircraft, and expect to fly them. And a lot of these non-pros are older, because it takes a bit of time to acquire the $ 1,000,000 + it takes to buy one of these beauties, let alone afford the jet fuel and other costs associated with operating a jet aircraft. And jets are normally only efficient at the higher altitudes – 35,000 to 45,000 feet. Guess who flies at these altitudes? Your right, we do on airliners or biz jets flown by professional pilots. The question is, how is all this predicted traffic going to work together?

 

There are other unique challenges for these owner/pilots operating aircraft at these altitudes. A rapid decompression can cause loss of consciousness within seconds, so specialized training on how to descend the aircraft quickly is required, as well as how to don an oxygen mask quickly, deal with passengers in panic and save the aircraft they have invested a lot of money in! In addition, these aircraft are slower than airliners. For example the Eclipse 500 very light jet, which just won certification from the FAA, flies at 370 knots, or about 425 miles per hour. Compare this to a Boeing 767 which operates at about 530 miles per hour. So, the airliners will have to pass all of these very light jets as they traverse the jet airways. Other problems will arise if these vlj’s go into the major airports because the approach speeds of the commercial airliners will be much higher than that for the vlj’s.

 

In the end, however, it will all have to work out. Cessna is bringing out the Mustang, Eclipse the 500, Adam aircraft the A 700 and more. So, it will be interesting to see how all of this works out. In the meantime keep your wings straight and level.

 

“Crusty Captain”

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Boeing 737 / Business Jet Collision in Brazil

On September 29^th 2006 two aircraft traversing the Amazon jungle were involved in an apparent midair collision.The brand new Boeing 737-800 with 154 passengers and crew crashed in a remote part of the Amazon jungle, while the brand new Embraer Legacy 600 business jet with 7 passengers and crew on board made an emergency landing at a nearby military airfield.

The tailplane of the Boeing jet was apparently damaged causing the jet to spiral out of control breaking up and crashing in the Amazon jungle. The business jet suffered some damage to the left winglet and left horizontal stabilizer. Rescue workers had to clear landing spots in the jungle for the rescue helicopters to land.

The crew and passengers of the business jet said they felt a “jolt”, saw a shadow and thought their aircraft had been hit by falling debris. Over the Amazon jungle radar coverage is not good; however, both aircraft were equipped with TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) systems which should have alerted each aircraft to the other aircrafts presence.

I have flown aircraft with TCAS installed and can tell you that you would not miss the proximity warning signal. In addition, both aircraft were under air traffic control and had received instructions from the ground on the route and altitude to fly. The apparent collision occurred in or near an overlapping radar coverage area where two different air traffic control facilities share responsibility. Apparently the Boeing and the Legacy were being controlled by different facilities.

Authorities in Brazil said the Boeing was assigned 37,000 and the Legacy 36,000; however, there are reports that the air traffic controllers lost radio contact with the Legacy aircraft just prior to the collision.

Now the interesting part: both pilots (John Lepore and Jan Paladino) have been detained by the Brazilian authorities, and their passports seized. Brazilian authorities claim that the Legacy crew turned off their transponder to perform “pilot tricks” which the air traffic controllers could not detect.

To confuse matters further, the manufacturer of the transponder on board the business jet may have had a deficiency which would cause the transponder to go into standby mode if the flight crew took longer than five (5) seconds to change the air traffic control assigned code. In turn this would cause improper operation of the TCAS system aboard the aircraft. Honeywell, the manufacturer of the transponder on board the business jet, said the one installed on this aircraft was not subject to this problem and that Honeywell had long ago issued a software upgrade to fix this problem.

The pilots remain in Brazil even though not charged with any crime. Their passports have been seized and they can not leave the country until the investigation is concluded.

At the upper altitudes it is very difficult to see converging aircraft, and particularly difficult to judge a converging aircraft altitude. Depending on the angle of convergence you may never even see the other aircraft. The “see and be seen” rule does not work well at these altitudes, and therefore reliance upon other means of separation are required. TCAS and air traffic control help, but in the end some accidents simply can not be avoided through human intervention.

We wait to see what the Brazilian authorities decide the cause of this accident was, and what they will do with the American pilots. Hopefully they will be more interested in the cause than in retribution and blame.

In the meantime keep your wings straight and level.

“Crusty Captain”

Mid Air Collision over the Amazon in Brazil

On September 29th, 2006 a brand new Boeing 737-800 with 155 sould on board crashed in a remote section of the Amazon killing all on board. Initial reports claim that the Boeing collided with a new business jet, an Embraer Legacy Jet. The seven souls on board the Legacy Jet were uninjured.

Consider this – brand new aircraft, equipped with the very latest technology, collide in a remote area resulting in 155 deaths. Each aircraft was equipped with TCAS (Traffic Collision Avoidance System) equipment which should have given ample warning of another aircraft in close proximity. I have flown aircraft with TCAS, and I can tell you that you will not miss the warnings.

Initial reports tell us that each aircraft was being controlled by a different air controller in different cities. The Boeing was cleared to fly at 37,000 feet, and the business jet was cleared to climb from 35,000 feet to 39,000 feet. However, the crew of the Legacy business jet claim they were cleared to fly at 37,000 feet. Once the “black boxes” are recoved and analyzed that matter should be cleared up.

Once agan we have well qualified pilots, well trained, flying modern well equipped aircraft, and still we have a fatal accident. Could the pilots have missed the warnings? The Boeing apparently lost its tailplane, and the Legacy business jet had damage to it when the crew post flighted the aircraft after an emergency landing. Could the controllers have miscommunicated? Did they not co-ordinate altitudes for the aircraft? Even so, how could these two aircraft get close enough to collide and no one know? Surely one of the crews would have noticed the TCAS alarm.

My bet is that the accident is the result of the usual – human error. Someone was not focused on the task at hand, was inattentive, distracted or simply not paying attention. Remember that newspaper rolled up my instructor used to hit my head with? I still feel it from time to time. The rule is never stop paying attention, even to the smallest details. Flying airplanes can be fun, but it is always dangerous.

Keep your wings level and fly safe!

“Crusty Captain”