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Briefing: June 2020

Gemini Sparkle

Key Takeaways:

  • Passengers on a burning Aeroflot Superjet 100 were seen retrieving luggage during evacuation, contributing to delays in emergency slide deployment and resulting in a high fatality count (41 of 78 people died).
  • The NTSB reported that baseball great Roy Halladay had impairing levels of various drugs in his system when he crashed his Icon A5, with flight data showing erratic, low-altitude maneuvers.
  • Airline safety has significantly improved, with the NTSB reporting a 65% drop in fatal accidents for Part 121 carriers from 2000-2017 compared to the previous 17 years.
  • The FAA is developing new, relaxed noise standards for takeoff and landing to accommodate the design requirements of future civilian supersonic aircraft.
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PAX GRABBED BAGS DURING EVACUATION

A video distributed by Russian government investigators showed passengers escaping a burning Aeroflot Superjet 100 leaving the aircraft with carry-on luggage, laptops and even items heavy enough that they struggled to lug them across the ramp. The surveillance video also shows that it took 11 seconds for the cabin crew to open the right-side emergency exit and more than 20 seconds to get the slide deployed on the left side as a fuel fire shot 50-foot flames from the rear of the plane. The aircraft took off from Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport on May 5, 2019 headed for Murmansk and was struck by lightning. The crew returned and the aircraft suffered a landing hard enough to collapse the mains and breach the full fuel tanks. Only 41 of the 78 people on board survived.

HALLADAY CRASH REPORT ISSUED

Baseball great Roy Halladay had an impairing level of a variety of drugs, some of them disqualifying for pilots, in his blood when he crashed his Icon A5 into the Gulf of Mexico in November of 2017, according to a factual report released by the NTSB. The Hall of Famer died as a result of the crash, which was documented in somber detail by the aircraft’s suite of flight data sensors. It recorded a series of steep banking turns and descents to within 20 feet of the surface before the 358-foot plunge into four feet of water with wings level and a nose-down angle of about 45 degrees. “Multiple witnesses in the area stated that they saw the airplane flying very low, between 5 and 300 feet over the water as the airplane maneuvered south close to the shoreline,” the report said.

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