AircraftOwner Online

Mike Goulian invited my son and me to come up to the Red Bull Air Races in New York June 19^th and 20^th. Mike and I have been friends since I was the team doctor and he was a member of the US Aerobactic Team at the World Competition in Hungary in 1994. Goulian is seventh in the Red Bull standings so far this year. Since these opportunities do not come around every day, we flew to NYC for the event.

Red Bull does not do routine advertising but instead, concentrates on extreme sports. What they have done with their air races is to turn aerobatic competition into a spectator sport appreciated by the pilot and non pilot alike. They have done this by combining speed through a course which requires aerobatic maneuvers to compete.

Watching amateur aerobatic competition gets boring after the first couple of flights. Red Bull has an entirely different feel and experience. Of course, the technology involved is spectacular with real time cameras in all the cockpits, on the tails, and from ground and helicopter cameras over the entire course. Red Bull also has jumbo TV screens all over so the spectators can watch the race with the naked eye or from the various camera locations on the screens with “entertaining” play by play. Of course the replays of the flights are ubiquitous.

Competition is based on time through a course delineated by inflatable pylons. These pylons are usually set up on lakes and rivers but some course have been set on hard ground. Blue pylons have to be passed wings level between the solid color marks and the red pylons are passed wings vertical. The aircraft will pull as many as nine positive Gs during the race and times can be separated by hundredths of seconds. There are time penalties for going too high, too low, wings not level or knife edge when passing a pylon, and of course, the ultimate six second penalty for hitting a pylon. There is even a one second penalty for “insufficient smoke” which shows how important the spectator portion of the competition is.

The rules are strict and aircraft engines and weight are set to be exact as possible. In fact, there are close to 200 pages of rules and regulations that define locations, personnel, weather, and just about every other criterion imaginable to make sure the races are fair and in particular, safe. Rescue divers are fully geared up during the race and were on the pilot in less than 60 seconds during a dunking in Perth, Australia.

My photos on Aircraft Owner show various aspects of the race in New York (actually on the Hudson River, just off New Jersey’s Liberty Park next to Ellis Island) ranging from aircraft passing the pylons to the short skirted Red Bull hosts. In addition to the race, there is a fair amount of party atmosphere at night which adds to the event.

Red Bull’s commitment to the race is enormous. They transport 360 tons of equipment to each race which include two control towers (one for the departure airport and one at the race site), hangars for all the aircraft (plus the aircraft), bleachers, VIP tents, the pylons, and much more. Everyone I spoke with associated with the race from the pilots to contract Getty photographers said that Red Bull treats them in a first class manner whether it was hotel selection or routine amenities. Reliable sources said that every race costs between $6 and $8 million to produce although the exact amounts are not public.

Needless to say, there was lots of Red Bull at the race. In fact, the choice was Red Bull, Red Bull Cola, or water. In the New York heat and humidity, I was hoping for a Red Bull beer!

I am very concerned about the role and plight of the professionally trained business aviation flight attendant. Non trained or unprofessionally trained  people acting as a corporate flight attendant and being listed as a passenger on the aircraft manifest or listed as a "cabin server" is beyond dangerous. It is unacceptable and a liability for an industry that is responsible for keeping people, including corporate executives, safe.

The moment the aircraft's chocks are removed and there is aircraft movement, until the aircraft comes to a complete stop and the chocks are replaced behind the tires, anything, and I mean anything can happen.

CEO's and anyone utilizing a business aircraft are in a tube traveling from point A-B-C in an unnatural environment. The mind set is to obviously get to point C without incident or accident. However, there is always that "What If" factor. I would have to assume that in 2004 in Montrose, Colorado, none of the passengers questioned whether or not the "acting" flight attendant was or was not corporate specific trained for evacuation purposes by an approved Part 91/135 training vendor. The person that appeared to be a corporate flight attendant was actually commercially trained. However, our business aircraft equipment is different, the operation of the main cabin door is different and the primary exits that are the over wing exits are different. The heart-breaking fact is that three people perished in that accident, including the "flight attendant" who had no formal emergency training by an approved training vendor for business aviation.

I have asked my peers for the past 25 years, "In what industry/profession where you have and hold people's lives in your hands do you introduce into that environment an untrained person?" Certainly not a doctor, nurse, criminal defense attorney who quite possibly by his/her expertise and training holds your life in their hands by his/her closing remarks to the jury. I recently took Amtrak to speak at an aviation conference in Washington, and even the conductors were evacuation trained. All pilots whether commercial or private are trained, so why not the flight attendant?

Do passengers boarding a commercial airline (El Al/Delta/Southwest/Air France), know that the flight attendants are emergency trained to save your life? The answer is a definite YES. You know that they are there to evacuate you if needed and will always have your back whether it is a medical emergency or aircraft emergency. Let us not forget The Miracle On The Hudson.

Most corporate aviation passengers never consider the possibility that the "acting flight attendant" on their airplane is a non-trained person. Their assumption is that she/he is egress/emergency and first aid trained for the mission of that aircraft type. The "acting" cabin server in Teterboro, NJ, Challenger aircraft accident had no formal corporate specific egress training and when the aircraft hit the warehouse building across Highway 46 the reports stated that she covered her eyes, screamed and could not open the forward door. A passenger opened the door.

On October 31, 2006, the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) released a final report about the Teterboro accident. In the report there was a statement: " Requiring any cabin personnel on board Part 135 flights who could be perceived by passengers as equivalent to a qualified flight attendant receive basic FAA  approved safety training in at least the following areas (incomplete safety briefing was given on this accident flight) : preflight briefing and safety checks; emergency exit operation; and emergency equipment usage. This training should be documented and recorded by the Part 135 certificate holder."

A synopsis of the Board's report including the probable cause and recommendations of this incident is available at www.ntsb.gov

I think it is time for corporate aviation passengers to start asking who the people are in the back of their aircraft whether it is a Part 91 or a Part 135 operation, and if they are corporate aircraft specific trained.

I will close by telling Wheels Up readers about my last recurrent egress training at FlightSafety in Teterboro last month. They have an amazing Gulfstream simulator for evacuation procedures and drills. It has an over wing exit for each corporate aircraft type. We are all given 2 drills each after hours of classroom work. This particular drill for me was what we refer to as an anticipated evacuation or a planned emergency. Here was my drill:

I was called to the cockpit and told by the instructor that we had about 15 minutes before landing in Morocco. We were over the water and there were major engine problems due to volcanic ash. I immediately asked the questions that I am trained to ask so I could gather the information needed to tell my passengers what was going on and then brief them accordingly. The information I was told made me realize that we might ditch (water landing) and might not have a runway landing.

I briefed my passengers (other students) accordingly, had them get their life vests out from under their respective seats and instructed them on how to put them on in the event of a water landing and instructed them to NOT inflate them in the cabin if we had a water landing but to do so when they had exited the over wing exit opening and after they assessed conditions out of the exit (fire/smoke/water level line). I showed them the rafts and their location under the couch (2 of them) and briefed them on how to tie the raft to the aircraft before heaving it out, and then REALLY briefed my assigned ABP (Able Bodied Passenger) in the event that I did not survive. This is the person that has the other passenger's backs in the event that the Flight Attendant is dead and they can then lead the evacuation. Trust me, there are a lot of things I briefed my passengers on that I can't get into in an article.

When we landed, the sound effects were implemented which were loud and scary when replicated for this type of landing. When what we heard was completed, I knew we had hit the water. The instructor screamed to me that I was partly paralyzed and had 2 broken legs, and my ABP was dead on impact. I could not physically initiate my evacuation. I had to verbally scream my evacuation commands from my seat and not execute my evacuation myself but instruct the passengers verbally again on when they could get out of their seats and what to do. What if the pilots were dead on impact and you had no corporate-specific-trained flight attendant in a real-life scenario like this?

The cost of corporate specific emergency training and having a real trained Corporate Flight Attendant on your aircraft versus a cabin server is a mere monetary pittance in relationship to your life and your corporate and personal family's lives.

Susan C. Friedenberg has been very proactive in Business Aviation for 25 years and is the founder of Corporate Flight Attendant Training & Consulting Services. She is passionate regarding raising the educational and egress training standards for the business aviation flight attendant/third crew member.

Susan C. Friedenberg – President & CEO
Corporate Flight Attendant Training & Consulting Services
241 South 6th Street
Suite 1806
Philadelphia, PA 19106 USA
Telephone # 215.625.4811
FAX # 215.413.9013
www.CorporateFlightAttendantTraining.com