SUKHOI SUPERJET WRECKAGE FOUND
An Indonesian helicopter rescue crew found the shattered wreckage of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 scattered over the side of a mountain early Thursday and there appear to be no survivors. The aircraft, Russia's newest passenger jet, was carrying 44 passengers on a demo flight out of Jakarta, Indonesia, when it vanished from radar Wednesday morning and crashed into the near vertical wall of Mount Salak. About 50 minutes into the flight, the crew asked to descend from 10,000 to 6,000 feet. Mount Salak is 7,254 feet high. Rescue workers were attempting to gain access to the site but all aboard are presumed lost. The flight was carrying representatives of Indonesian airlines, along with five journalists and Russian embassy officials. More...

REPORT: FAA NEEDS TO HEED WHISTLEBLOWERS
The FAA needs to do a better job of overseeing safety lapses among air traffic controllers and other employees, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel said on Tuesday. The office, which investigates complaints from whistleblowers, said the FAA and the Transportation Department have repeatedly failed to take "timely corrective action" in response to such complaints. "The public properly expects zero tolerance for unnecessary risks," said Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner. Among the complaints cited by Lerner were inadequate oversight that allowed emergency-service helicopters to fly with improperly installed night-vision systems, imprecise language used by air traffic controllers in the greater New York area that resulted in a near-collision, and ATC clearances issued without proper wake-turbulence separation. More...

AIRLINES: DELAY EXPLODING FUEL TANK FIX
Formerly known as the Air Transport Association of America, the trade group Airlines for America has asked the FAA to postpone a requirement to equip passenger jets with kits designed to keep them from exploding. According to the group, the need for a delay can be traced back to the FAA. A 2008 FAA regulation requires that the kits be fitted to passenger jets to reduce the chance of volatile fuel-air mixtures leading to fuel-tank explosions that could damage (and have destroyed) aircraft and kill passengers. The trade group says the process that would lead to the FAA's own approval for those kits is behind schedule and that could force carriers to ground aircraft if they are forced to meet a 2014 deadline. More...

PALS PILOTS GET HELP WITH FUEL COST
Volunteer pilots flying for Patient AirLift Services (PALS) may now be partially reimbursed for fuel costs related to charitable flights, PALS recently announced. The program is FAA-approved and it means that "pilots can receive reimbursement for fuel costs incurred when flying patients in need of medical treatment during charitable missions." That change is the result of an exception granted to PALS by the FAA that "is in the best public interest," according to the FAA's acting deputy director of flight standards service, Melvin Cintron. Said Cintron, "The FAA wants to encourage this kind of volunteerism and public service for the common good of our citizens." More...

DENNY FITCH, SIOUX CITY FLIGHT 232 THROTTLE MAN DIES
Denny Fitch, the off-duty United Airlines DC-10 instructor who worked the throttles in the crash landing of Flight 232 at Sioux City, IA on July 19, 1989 died of brain cancer on May 7. Fitch, along with 184 others survived in a legendary feat of airmanship credited with initiating the now-standard concept of crew resource management. "Nobody had a right to walk away from that," Fitch told the Sioux City Herald just after the accident, in which 111 people died. Fitch was deadheading from United's training center in Denver to his home near Chicago when he heard the bang that signalled shards of turbine blades on the tail-mounted No. 2 engine slicing through lines supplying all three hydraulic systems on the aircraft. As the engine shook itself to a final smoking death,the only controls left were the power settings for the wing-mounted engines. After reassuring a flight attendant that everything would be alright, Fitch headed for the cockpit. More...

NTSB TO EXPLORE GA SAFETY
The NTSB announced this week that it will hold a two-day forum next month to examine safety issues related to general aviation. "Each year, hundreds of people are killed in general aviation crashes, and thousands more are injured," said board chairman Deborah Hersman, in a news release. "Tragically, the circumstances leading to these accidents are often repeated over and over, year after year. If we are going to prevent future fatalities and injuries, these common causes must be addressed." Last year, the safety board added "General Aviation Safety" to its "Most Wanted" list of transportation safety improvements. More...

PASSENGERS ON UPSET FLIGHT SUE AIRLINE
A $20 million class action lawsuit has been launched against Air Canada by passengers aboard a Toronto-Zurich flight that was mistakenly thrown into a dive by one of the pilots. As we reported, at least 16 people, 14 passengers and two flight attendants, were hurt when the first officer, who had just awoken from a sanctioned in-seat nap, spotted an oncoming Air Force C-17 and thought they were on a collision course. Moments before, he'd mistaken the planet Venus for the C-17. The military plane was 1,000 feet below the 767-300 at 12 o'clock. The FO pushed the Boeing into an emergency dive, dropping 400 feet. It then, just as abruptly, climbed 800 feet before settling into level flight with the captain under control. Seven of the injured were taken to hospital when the aircraft arrived in Zurich three hours later. But it wasn't the incident itself, which happened in January of 2011, that pushed the passengers to legal action. Their statement of claim alleges the airline "actively covered up the true cause of the terrifying episode." More...

AVWEBBIZ: AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVIATION NEWSLETTER

Have you signed up yet for AVweb's no-cost weekly business aviation newsletter, AVwebBiz?

Delivered every Wednesday morning, AVwebBiz focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the business aviation industry, making it a must-read.

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QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WHAT DO YOU DRIVE (ON THE GROUND)?
"I know it's a bit off-norm for the 'Question of the Week,'" writes AVweb reader Michael Sullivan, "but I work at a car dealership, and I see a ton of pilots (professional and non-professional) come in here. I'm curious to see what the pilot population is driving."

Plus: Last week, we asked AVweb readers if they'd commented on AOPA and EAA's third-class medical reform proposal (at the request of another reader); click through to see the breakdown of responses. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 255,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: THE F-22 DEBACLE
Ya gotta give the two Air Force officers who went on record dissing the F-22's oxygen system credit. It took a set of stones to do that. The larger question is what will the Air Force do about this flawed super fighter, the most expensive fighter aircraft in U.S. history by orders of magnitude? In his latest post to the AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli asks, "Are they really holding Lockheed Martin's feet to the fire to fix this thing?" Read more and join the conversation. More...

VIDEO: WILLIAM RANKIN, THE MAN WHO RODE THE THUNDER
The story of William Rankin's ejection at 47,000 feet and 500 knots is legendary, not only because the fall took him 40 minutes, but also because he lived to talk about it. There are other and more recent cases of people who have been drawn into thunderstorms under canopy and not every one ends in survival. More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: JET WEST (SNS, SALINAS, CALIFORNIA)

AVweb reader Jack Addison discovered our latest "FBO of the Week" -- Jet West at Salinas Municipal Airport (SNS) in Salinas, California:

We had landed at Monterey, California and found [another venue] wanted $25 per night to stay for my wife's race at Big Sur. Their fuel was expensive, and there were no tie-down ropes or chains with the in-concrete loops. We ferried over to Jet West at Salinas, were greeted, tied down with three chains provided, and fueled up at $5.99 and no more charge for four nights. When we returned, the ground crew had put orange cones 3' high at each wing tip for protection. As a bonus, my wife walked over to Sean Tucker and got his autograph! Jet West, SNS likes general aviation!

Keep those nominations coming. For complete contest rules, click here.

AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBOs in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!

PICTURE OF THE WEEK: AVWEB'S FLYING PHOTOGRAPHY SHOWCASE
Our latest winning photo comes from Josh Kneer & Tony Ginn of Rosamond, CA. Click here for the rest of this week's submissions. More...

MEET THE AVWEBFLASH TEAM

AVwebFlash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the world's premier independent aviation news resource.

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