While the European airworthiness directive to modify the Boeing 737 Max for return-to-service are the same as those issued by the US FAA, some of the operational requirements will differ. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has invited comments on its proposed directive, which will enable operators of the twinjet to re-introduce it to passenger service after its grounding in March last year. Although the required design updates will parallel those of the FAA – meaning European- and US-operated aircraft will have no software or technical differences – the EASA proposal features a couple of operational tweaks. EASA will allow crews to disengage the stick-shaker, to prevent its distracting the pilots, if it has been erroneously activated. The proposed EASA directive mentions installation of coloured caps on the stick-shaker circuit-breakers, but points out that the FAA directive issued on 20 November has no corresponding requirement. Several pilot associations had expressed concern to the FAA over the “attention-getting” nature of the stick-shaker, and requested a change to procedures to enable suppression – by pulling the circuit-breaker – if the warning was erroneous.
But the FAA says the revised software for the 737 Max eliminates the potential for false angle-of-attack data to cause misbehavior of the MCAS flight-control system, and “therefore removes the most significant contributor to unacceptably high flightcrew workload”. The FAA says it has assessed all remaining cockpit effects, including erroneous stick-shaker, across all foreseeable failure conditions. “With the remaining flight deck effects and associated crew workload, these failures and effects were found compliant and safe,” it says, adding that – while an erroneous stick-shaker might be a distraction, it “does not affect controllability” of the aircraft. It adds that the circuit-breaker locations for the stick-shaker do not meet FAA requirements for “convenient” operation of emergency controls from the pilots’ normal seating position – and that pulling circuit-breakers could, in itself, amount to a possible distraction. The proposed EASA directive refers to the ‘airspeed unreliable’ procedure and states that a nuisance stick-shaker “may be de-activated at pilot’s discretion” on the affected side. “This improves recognition of a stall warning on the opposite side,” it adds. EASA’s directive also includes a temporary prohibition on conducting RNP-AR approaches with the aircraft – a type of precision approach which demands the capability to meet stricter navigation tolerances. It says it has gathered evidence that, after a single angle-of-attack sensor failure during such approaches, all flight guidance allowing the pilot to guide the aircraft along the intended flight path “is lost”. “Therefore the crew is left with no means to ensure that the aircraft’s trajectory can be maintained within the tolerated lateral deviation,” it adds. This could be a hazard if the RNP-AR approach has been developed to avoid terrain or obstacles. EASA says it expects its prohibition to be a “short-term restriction”. It states that its 737 Max pilot training requirements are “broadly the same” as those set out by the FAA, but points out that limited simulator capacity means the training could take “some time” to schedule. “Some of this work can be started now, even in advance of the final airworthiness directive publication,” says EASA. Boeing and EASA are to work on increasing further the robustness and resilience of the 737 Max to angle-of-attack sensor failure. While the Max has two angle-of-attack sensors, the FAA considered remarks that three such inputs – possibly including one from synthetic data – should be required in order to resolve a situation in which a single sensor generated spurious data. But the FAA insists that the aircraft’s software revision, which uses comparison of two angle-of-attack inputs, will disable the MCAS if necessary and enable the aircraft to continue flying safely and land with MCAS inoperative. “The new MCAS design accounts for safe operation after [angle-of-attack] sensor failures due to environmental causes including bird-strikes that bend or break the vane,” it adds. EASA says Boeing is to carry out a human factors assessment of its crew-alerting systems over the next 12 months, with a view to potentially upgrading them to a more modern design.

IATA is developing a health pass app that will enable passengers to create a digital version of their passport and collect and share Covid-19 testing data from laboratories with governments and airlines in an effort to facilitate the reopening of borders. Speaking as part of the airline body's Global Media Days event, IATA's head of airport, passenger and security products, Alan Murray Hayden, highlights that the driver behind the move is to "get passengers back into the sky". For that to take place, he says that "passengers, governments and airlines need to have confidence" in any testing regime, and "need to have verifiability". The app will enable passengers to receive Covid-19 results from laboratories, verify the outcome is sufficient to enter their intended destination, and share information with national authorities and airlines to enable boarding and customs clearances. IATA believes the system will benefit governments because it will enable them to verify the authenticity of tests and identify the person presenting those tests. Airlines will benefit from being able to provide information on test requirements and check that passengers have met those requirements. Laboratories will be able to issue digital results in a format that will be recognised by airlines and authorities, and travellers will receive accurate information and be able to convey test results to carriers and border authorities, IATA says. The digital passport aspect could eventually enable passengers to move through their entire travel journey using only contactless technology, it notes. IATA has been working with IAG to develop the pass and plans to launch a trial with the airline group by the end of the year, with a wider rollout scheduled for the first quarter of 2021 initially for iPhones, followed by an Android version. Murray Hayden says that although the charges involved with the app are yet to be finalised, there will be a per-passenger fee to airlines that is "as low as possible", with no extra expense for travellers or governments. He adds that governments have in general been "extremely open" to the idea, "because they see the benefit of it". He notes that there are similar such apps being developed by airline alliances, with IATA hoping that the app would work in combination with them. Eventually the association hopes that most of the technology will be able to function through airline's own apps. The travel pass will consist of four open source modules: a global registry of health requirements; a global registry of testing and vaccination centres; a lab app that enables testing centres to securely share test and vaccination certificates; and a contactless travel app to allow passengers to create their digital passport and receive and share test and vaccination certificates. “Today borders are double locked. Testing is the first key to enable international travel without quarantine measures. The second key is the global information infrastructure needed to securely manage, share and verify test data matched with traveller identities in compliance with border control requirements. That’s the job of IATA Travel Pass. We are bringing this to market in the coming months to also meet the needs of the various travel bubbles and public health corridors that are starting operation,” says IATA director general Alexandre de Juniac. The base for the global registry will be IATA's Timatic software, which is already used by most airlines to manage compliance with passport and visa regulations. The contactless travel app that will manage the test and vaccination certificates is based on IATA's One ID initiative.

Passengers arriving in England after 15 December from countries that are not on the UK's travel-corridor list will be able to reduce their quarantine time by almost a third if they test negative for Covid-19 five days after arrival. The UK government today unveiled its 'test to release for international travel' strategy, under which passengers can pre-book and pay for a test from a state-approved private provider, to be taken after five days of self-isolation. If the result is negative, they can immediately exit quarantine instead of completing the currently-required 14 days of self-isolation. The government says it has opted to test passengers after five days rather than on arrival at the airport because "it allows time for the virus, should it be present, to incubate, helping reduce the risk of a false negative result". Passengers can book a test before they travel from a provider listed on a government website. This must be stated on their passenger-locator form prior to arrival. They can then take the test "on or after" day five of their self-isolation period. The test can be taken at home or at the provider's testing site. If the result is negative, they can immediately come out of quarantine. Passengers from non-exempt countries who choose not to take a test must self-isolate for the full two weeks after arriving. "We have a plan in place to ensure that our route out of this pandemic is careful and balanced, allowing us to focus on what we can now do to bolster international travel while keeping the public safe," states UK transport minister Grant Shapps. "Our new testing strategy will allow us to travel more freely, see loved ones and drive international business." The UK government also announced today that it would provide financial support to airports and ground handlers in England. The scheme, which launches in early 2021, will provide up to £8 million ($10.6 million) per commercial airport to help cover fixed costs. "This new package of support for airports, alongside a new testing regime for international arrivals, will help the sector take off once again as we build back better from the pandemic," says UK chancellor Rishi Sunak. The government says it is also exploring pre-departure Covid-19 testing pilot programmes "with partner countries on a bilateral basis".