Airlines India, Indian Airlines

The U.S. State Department intends to provide an additional $400,000 in support of aviation safety initiatives in the Caribbean region.

The intended funds are in addition to $800,000 the United States has granted the Caribbean for the same purpose through the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) over the past four years.

FAA administrator Marion Blakey announced the intended U.S. funding for the Caribbean during an August 2 speech in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Blakey spoke to a meeting of transportation ministers from the 15-nation bloc of Caribbean nations known as CARICOM.

Blakey said the U.S. funds have been used to provide technical and legal assistance, and for training and infrastructure improvements to help countries in the Caribbean maintain or achieve what is called Category I status regarding the safety of their aviation operations. Category I means a country’s civil aviation authority has been found by FAA to be licensing and overseeing their air carriers in accordance with aviation safety standards of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

Countries with air carriers that fly to the United States must adhere to the safety standards of ICAO, the U.N. technical agency that establishes international standards and issues recommendations regarding aircraft operations and maintenance.

Carriers from countries with a lower Category II rating may continue existing operations into the United States but are subject to heightened FAA surveillance.

A State Department official said in an interview that the intended $400,000 for Caribbean aviation would come from economic support funds of the Third Border Initiative. That initiative, unveiled by President Bush at the 2001 Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, provides funding and training in the Caribbean for such programs as aviation safety, the fight against HIV/AIDS, disaster preparedness, and environmental management.

The official said the funds are designed to “standardize” regional civil aviation safety regulations in the Caribbean.

An FAA official added in an interview that Third Border Initiative money is for funding aviation-related infrastructure projects, which will produce a subsequent benefit for Caribbean countries trying to achieve a Category I status or have in fact achieved that status. But the FAA official stressed that the funds coming from the Third Border Initiative are not used “solely” for helping countries achieve the Category I safety rating.

The FAA’s Blakey paid tribute to those countries at the Port of Spain meeting that have achieved the Category I status.

These countries, she said, “are in full compliance with international safety standards, joining some 100 countries and regional safety alliances that have oversight responsibility for close to 600 air operators that operate in U.S. airspace.” Blakey added that other nations at the meeting in Trinidad and Tobago were “working hard” toward the Category I status as well, “and I commend them for their efforts.”

Blakey said that since 1997, the FAA, which is part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, has “proudly worked with countries in the Caribbean region to improve civil aviation.” Her agency, she said, “will continue to stand with the Caribbean Community, as partners, and as friends. Because we’re all striving for the same goals — a safe, thriving air transportation system, and prosperity for the Caribbean, and for the world.”

The FAA administrator also invited the Caribbean officials to the agency’s third annual International Aviation Safety Forum, being held in Washington from November 1-3. At that forum, government regulators and aviation leaders from around the world will meet to discuss global air transportation safety issues.

Information on the November International Aviation Safety Forum and the full text of Blakey’s remarks in Port of Spain are available at the FAA Web site.

Experts have warned of one aircraft accident per week on an average from 2010 onwards because of increased number of flights in operation. The scary data was presented by ER Paul Russel, senior engineer during a lecture on the topic “Use of advanced hazard avoidance avionics systems in civil aircraft present and future” in Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Giving data about the accidents, which took place in the past 20 years, he said about 50 per cent of take off accident was due to crew error and 25 per cent accident was caused due to inclement weather and 10-15 per cent owing to aircraft failure.

The modern aircraft are equipped with Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS) to avoid CFIT (Control Flight Into Terrain) and Traffic Alert And Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) to avoid collision between aircraft, he said.

Elaborating on EGPWS, he said it augmented the classic GPWS modes of operation by including it in computer. A model of earth’s terrain and man-made objects, including the airport database inside, could continuously compare the aircraft position to a virtual three dimensional map of the real world, thus predicting an evolving hazardous situation much in advance, he added.

Referring to the TCAS instrument/system equipped in aircraft, ER Paul informed that it detects any aircraft flying in the vicinity with working transponders by interrogating the transponder and processing the replies.

The future of ICAS is linking the system with GPS (Global Positioning System) to escape the threat in a very effective manner, he informed UNI.

Dan Starks is a personal safety specialist with our news partner, WCNC. Each Monday in the Observer he offers advice to help protect you and your family.

A colleague is traveling by airplane this summer and asked me for some safety tips. While airline travel should be safer today because of increased security, there are things you should do to protect yourself and your belongings.

Airline Travel Safety

• Mark luggage tags with your first initial, last name, cell phone number and preferably an office address. If your luggage is lost, you don’t want criminals to know your home address and that you’re probably out of town.

• Don’t pack more than you can carry. A heavy suitcase marks you as an easy target.

• Since you can no longer lock suitcases, don’t pack anything of value.

• Carry on anything you can’t live without.

• Make sure prescription drugs are in the original bottle with your name on it.

• Put some form of identification inside your suitcase, similar to what’s on your luggage tag, but add the last four digits of your Social Security number to act as proof of identification if it’s lost or stolen.

• If traveling overseas, make sure there is a copy of your passport, driver’s license/birth certificate in every suitcase. Do not pack the originals. Block out Social Security numbers where visible on the copies.

• Wear comfortable, loose-fitting clothes made of natural materials. Long-sleeved shirts, long pants, and closed-toed shoes can make escape easier should a problem arise. Dan

Dave, a professional aviator, discusses the confusion about departing from class D airports.

Pilots accustomed to operating at a Class D airport that happens to be surrounded by a TRSA most likely contact approach control and are subsequently transfered to tower for arrivals, and when departing, they do just the opposite. The confusion arises when one of these pilots finds him or herself at a Class D field without a terminal radar facility surrounding it. In this case the proper arrival procedure (as most already know) is to contact the tower about ten miles or so from the airport, leaving plenty of time to establish two-way radio communications before entering the airspace. No problem.

But what about departure? The tower clears you for takeoff (possibly issuing an extra instruction, such as “left turnout approved…” etc). So once airborne and having complied with the controller’s instruction, do you have to talk to the controller anymore? Probably not. The reason is because if the airport is not surrounded by a radar facility, you will not have been issued a squwak code for your transponder, thus eliminating the necessity of the controller telling you to “Sqwuak VFR, frequency change approved, have a good day…” .

The important thing to remember is that a Class D airport without a TRSA does not have radar facilities.

Check out the complete post here