More than 200 corporate aviation professionals attended the NBAA Flight Attendants/Flight Technicians (FAFT) Conference held recently in Tucson, Ariz. Now in its 20th year, the FAFT conference this year staged more educational sessions, breakout sessions and meetings to provide broader opportunities for attendants and technicians to learn, network and discuss issues.

In his opening welcome speech, NBAA COO Steven Brown discussed some of the key issues corporate flight attendants and flight technicians face, such as crew duty day standards. Brown said that several NBAA committees–including the Flight Attendants Committee currently led by committee chair Elaine Lapotosky–are working on determining best practices related to long-range missions.

“Today’s growth markets are a long way from the traditional centers of aviation excellence, so companies require longer-range capabilities to compete,” said Brown. “The idea of humans having a limit that’s generally shorter than 17 hours [a number previously brought up by a flight attendant as a common duty day] is something that everyone in our committee recognizes, and we’re increasingly focused on the notion of long-range performance, whether from a maintenance, cabin or multi-crew pilot point of view. We don’t have all of the answers yet, but it’s fair to say that in various transportation modes, long-range operations are becoming a challenge. We’re trying to learn from not only what we as an inward-looking group know, but also to profit from the best practices from commercial and military operations.”

Former astronaut Capt. Mark Kelly received three standing ovations during his keynote speech in which he described his experiences as a U.S. Navy pilot flying missions over Iraq during Desert Storm, completing astronaut training and commanding the space shuttle on its final mission after nursing his wife, U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, through recovery from her near-fatal gunshot wound. The main message of his speech: never give up on efforts to attain a major goal.

“How good you are at the beginning of anything you try, especially in aviation, is not a good indicator of how good you can become,” said Kelly. “I’m a prime example of someone who was able to overcome a serious lack of aptitude. Practice, persistence and the drive to never give up under any circumstance were the only things that ever worked for me.”

Life Raft Survival Training

The NBAA Safety and Training Committee inflated two life rafts on stage to demonstrate evacuation procedures. Terry Fuhrmann, supervisor of flight services for Aramco Associated, discussed specific life raft procedures, including the need to bail water and sponge the floor dry to prevent trench foot, and fully inflating the raft floor to provide a pocket of thermal protection. “About an hour of continuous pumping will inflate the floor,” said Fuhrmann.

During the 90-minute survival presentation, Jeff Hare of JH Aviation Safety Service advised flight attendants in survival situations to divide up tasks such as making water with desalination kits, constantly sweeping with signal mirrors and/or flashlights and maintaining a written log of events.

“Keep the passengers quiet and busy at all times,” Hare said. “There’s a lot to do because you don’t know how long it will be before you’re rescued…Eighty percent of survival is keeping mental alertness. Never give up.”

Hare also advised taking seasickness tablets immediately upon opening the survival kit as it takes 30 to 45 minutes to digest the tablets. He briefly explained the use of key items found in most survival kits, including the signal mirror (the flash of which can be seen from 10 to 15 miles away), marine-grade flares, sea dye marker (the dye lasts for only three to five minutes) and the manual desalinizator, which can create up to 110 gallons of drinking water at one quart per hour.

Hare also explained the importance of deploying the sea anchor, especially in heavy seas, to reduce the chance of capsizing. If the raft does flip, he recommended righting the raft from the same side as the inflation bottle to prevent injury from the bottle flying through the air.

One item not commonly found in survival kits but extremely important to comfort is sunscreen. Hare commented that ladies’ handbags are great secondary survival kits because they often contain small tubes of sunscreen, moisturizers and cosmetics with some sun protection.  

“Most people don’t know which life raft or survival kits are on the aircraft,” said Louisa Fisher, emergency training and cabin safety program manager for FlightSafety International, during the latter part of the training. “You should be able to slip the raft out of its compartment without inflating it to find the manufacturer’s name, and there should be a document accessible listing the survival gear in the life raft.”

Preventing and Extinguishing Lithium Battery Fires in Personal Devices

Another safety-related session focused on preventing and extinguishing fires from lithium-ion batteries in consumer devices.

“If you see smoke coming from a lithium-powered device, you’re in danger,” warned John Ransom, director of safety standards at Safety Operating Systems. “Don’t just turn it off; you’re going to need to cool the device because you might have a battery about to go into thermal runaway.”

According to Ransom, lithium-ion or lithium polymer batteries powering consumer devices such as tablets, phones and laptops can develop internal short circuits caused by substandard manufacturing materials, improper charging practices or damage sustained from the device being dropped. While the damage might not manifest itself immediately, repeatedly recharging the device can continue battery deterioration until it develops a short and begins to overheat.

“When a [lithium battery-powered] device feels hotter than normal, discontinue charging and remove power,” said Ransom. “Even the best batteries are negatively affected by heat. If you leave the device in a hot place and then charge it, the battery is not going to be happy.”

Using a Halon fire extinguisher will often not completely extinguish a lithium-ion battery fire, as Ransom showed in videos of laptops experiencing thermal runaway where one overheating battery causes other previously undamaged batteries in the battery pack to overheat, ignite or explode. While the Halon extinguishes the immediate fire, it does not cool the batteries, and secondary fires can break out as thermal runaway escalates. Dousing the device with water, soda or other non-flammable liquid will cool the batteries and prevent additional fires. However, tests showed that mounding ice on a burning device might not cool the batteries inside quickly enough to prevent thermal runaway.

Ransom recommended using one of the many commercial fire-containment boxes, sleeves or bags available, many of which contain fire-protection gloves or mechanical means to protect the handler when moving the hot device into the containment system. Fluid can then be poured into the containment area to cool the device without harming aircraft electronics.

To prevent battery-related fires on corporate aircraft, Ransom suggested the following best practices for all users of lithium-ion-powered personal devices: don’t buy cheap gray-market batteries, chargers or cables; keep battery-powered devices out of the sun and away from heat sources; avoid carrying loose batteries in luggage or carry-ons; if the battery comes with a safety cap (such as some spare camera batteries), reinstall the cap whenever the battery is not on the charger or in the device; and never charge a device or battery inside a bag or case.

“A really bad situation is when a passenger uses a battery bank to charge devices and stows both the battery bank and the devices in a bag while charging,” said Ransom, who said this practice allows heat to build inside the bag. “If you see a passenger do this, you might want to suggest that they charge the units differently.” 

Cabin Air Cleaner at the End of the Flight?

Dr. Paulo Alves of MedAire imparted relatively good news about cabin air quality and the possibility of spreading infectious diseases aboard corporate aircraft. According to Alves, the combination of initially using extremely hot bleed air from the engine and then recirculating cabin air through filters means that cabin air is generally cleaner at the end of a long flight than at its start.

“Ventilation is crucial to preventing airborne illnesses,” said Alves. “Bleed air comes through the engine at a very high temperature, so although it gets cooled, it arrives in the cabin sterile and dry. Water is essential to life, so you don’t expect [viruses to survive] when it’s very dry.”

Alves noted that the high-efficiency particulate arrestance (HEPA) filters generally used on business aircraft use three methods to trap and remove approximately 99.9 percent of particulates–including microorganisms such as viruses–from the air. While it may be good practice to change HEPA filters wearing gloves, full personal protection equipment (PPE) is not needed because the air inside the filter is too dry for microorganisms to survive for long.

The time to don PPE, according to Alves, is when there is an actual carrier of an infectious disease on the aircraft, which is extremely rare in corporate aviation. He said that of the medical “SOS” calls MedAire receives each year, only 2 percent are related to infectious diseases. A far higher percentage of calls–between 16 and 21 percent depending on the year–are related to gastrointestinal issues.

“Food safety is absolutely paramount,” said Alves. “Always use good quality catering services. And keep in mind that symptoms often manifest themselves in flight because the incubation period for food poisoning can be 24 to 48 hours.”

Food Safety and Plating

John Detloff, v-p of flight attendant services for Air Culinaire Worldwide, presented a breakout session on food safety that emphasized the need for flight attendants to ensure the safety of food all the way from ordering, receiving and storage to serving.

According to Detloff, foodborne pathogens grow best in temperatures between 41 degrees F (5 degrees C) and 140 degrees F (60 degrees C). “This is referred to as the temperature danger zone, and the time that food is in this zone is important,” Detloff said. “If food is in the temperature danger zone for more than two hours, pathogens can multiply to levels that will make people sick.”

During his food plating breakout session, On Air Dining CEO chef Daniel Hulme also emphasized the importance of ensuring food does not enter or remain in the temperature danger zone, and warned flight attendants against using restaurants instead of catering services.

“When food goes out the door of a restaurant, it’s your responsibility to keep it cold, not theirs,” said Hulme. “Restaurants are cook-and-serve establishments; generally they are not equipped with blast chillers to cool food rapidly below the danger zone. If you’re using a restaurant for your food service needs, you’re playing with fire.”

Flight Technician Issues

The largest group of flight technicians to attend the FAFT Conference to date, 10 technicians met during a breakout session to discuss issues specific to their role as combination mechanics and flight attendants. Issues included international maintenance support, tools and parts typically carried aboard the aircraft, tool control and voice/data connectivity.

Several members relayed experiences of having difficulties with critical aircraft parts being hung up in customs, and the group was split evenly between technicians who didn’t carry any parts aboard aircraft and those who typically travel with a specific set of cables, igniters, inverters and lamp kits. One technician said that his aircraft routinely carries a spare tire and has had to change a tire on the road to satisfy a pilot who had grounded the aircraft.

One technician, who also serves as an IS-BAO auditor, recommended using photos taken by smartphone to assist in tool control, photographing the toolbox before tools are removed, after they are removed and when the work is done to verify all tools are back in the toolbox. “The phone is the ‘biggest’ tool in the toolbox!” the technician said.

The technicians expressed some dissatisfaction at having the breakout session occur during food safety and plating sessions as they felt these topics are also important to flight technicians. Next year NBAA plans to hold the flight technician meeting during the conference but as a pre-conference session or after-hours session to ensure the technicians do not miss sessions related to the flight attendant part of their jobs.

More than 30 Scholarships Awarded

During the two-day Flight Attendants and Flight Technicians Conference, the NBAA Flight Attendants Committee awarded $34,000 in scholarships sponsored by 25 companies or individuals to 33 recipients. Among the winners was U.S. Air Force MSgt Christina Henderlong, an instructor flight attendant based at Scott AFB, Ill., who routinely performs executive flight attendant duties on a Boeing Business Jet. Henderlong is the first recipient of the Dale “Potsy” McBurney Aviation Scholarship established last year to honor the memory of NBAA Flight Attendants Committee member McBurney after a brain aneurysm took his life. McBurney’s life partner, Scott Arnold, also an NBAA Flight Attendants Committee member, presented the award to Henderlong.

For more information on 2016 scholarships, visit nbaa.org/scholarships.