itemscope="itemscope" itemtype="http://schema.org/WebSite"> Airlaw, Author at Airlaw :: The Wolk Law Firm

GIVE US A CALL 215.545.4220 | Email Us airlaw@airlaw.com | File Share Login

About Airlaw

For more than 50 years, The Wolk Law Firm has concentrated its practice in the area of aviation law, with Arthur personally generating verdicts and settlements of more than a billion dollars during the last decade alone. He is known for obtaining and on appeal, holding, the largest verdicts for each type of air accident claim in recent aviation history.

    By Airlaw

    NTSB WRONGLY BLAMES THE PILOT FOR THIS CRASH

    The NTSB published its improbable “Probable Cause “ determination on this crash and concluded wrongly that pilot error caused the crash.

    What the NTSB could not and did not explain was why both propellers showed idle power at impact.

    The reason is simple and had the investigation been thorough the NTSB would have known that an engine likely failed which will cause an Islander like this airplane to do a roll in the direction of the failed engine at a speed below minimum control airspeed known as VMCA. VMCA in this airplane is 50 knots which is a speed recorded by ADSB and GPS during this crash.

    Of course, with all that drag from this very aerodynamically dirty airplane maintaining speed above VMCA is very difficult especially in turbulent conditions and this pilot didn’t have any altitude to trade for airspeed because the flight was conducted at 1500 feet.

    The final thing a pilot will do is pull back on the throttle of the good engine so the airplane does not roll and that’s likely why both propellers show idle power signatures.

    It is not clear from the report whether the NTSB opened and examined the carburetor of either engine to see whether we’ll-known defects in those fuel air controlling devices contributed to a loss of power.

    The factual report is silent on that subject which from experience usually means they just punted on that critical part of the investigation. The manufacturer of the engines, Avco Lycoming was a “party participant” invited by the NTSB to “help” it determine the cause of the accident.

    The Wolk Law Firm is not involved in litigating this accident.

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    11/13/24

    1

    By Airlaw

    CONTRAILS PRESENT A CHALLENGE…

    Hi Joe,

    I read with interest the latest junk science on climate change, that which attributes more impact than CO2 from contrails on the climate change hyperbole.

    The article which was well written describes “studies” that confirm that contrails while contributing to global cooling during the day add to the blanket of intellectually absent cirrus overcast that warms the earth during the night.

    First, while an interesting approach, any jet pilot will report that contrails are not opaque, they are at worst translucent immediately upon their creation by not only exhaust but also bypass air that has been warmed by the engine.

    Since they dissipate quickly by any measure and become even more translucent moments after they are created there is zero possibility of any impact on the temperature of the earth below because unlike an overcast, there is no chance of trapping any heat by a wisp of ice crystals that you can see through.

    The entire predicate for the study, well-funded no doubt, is misplaced, or put another way is an unscientific figment of one’s imagination fertilized by generous grants to come up with as many ways to impact everything that is our world without regard for the consequences.

    For example, the implications of the studies are that fuel efficient jets are the problem because they fly higher in colder air. That is nonsense since contrails can begin to form at much lower altitudes depending on temperature and frequently don’t exist at the higher altitudes. The air temperature of -56C at 40,000 feet is hardly much warmer than it is at say 430 or 450. In fact, on some days with similar temperatures there are either no contrails or more contrails depending upon the moisture in the air.

    Thus, the implied “solution” is to flight plan based upon the likelihood of contrail formation without a shred of empirical evidence that there is a scintilla of climate change from the existence of contrails only an unproved supposition based on satellite reflectivity. Satellite based reflectivity is not equivalent to opacity since we know from our experience that contrails are not opaque, they are not solid, they are not thick, they are not long lived and they are ice not warm air. The next illogical path for these “scientists” is to outlaw cirrus clouds which can exist for tens of thousands of feet and often are far more opaque than any contrail ever could be.

    Think of the implications of this nonsense run wild. Aircraft range will be dramatically reduced when we have to fly lower to satisfy some “study” where the hypothesis was that contrails are a problem before it began. Flying lower uses more fuel so the carbon foot print will be larger not smaller arguably contributing much more to climate change.

    No contrails altitudes will be more crowded and thus unavailable for the flights we want to take or need to take and the risk of collision by ever crowding more aircraft in the no-contrail airspace will increase the risk of collision and delay. Delay causes a larger carbon footprint not smaller.  Contrails are a great see- -and-avoid tool at flight levels and without them the risk of collision is higher for everyone.

    So, to sum up, this study is unsupported by empirical data just supposition I would surmise by non-pilots who have no experience seeing a contrail up close and personal. Like most university and climate interested governmental organizations their zeal to come up with something is based upon the funding received to prove something, even if that something does not exist in nature.

    At the risk of being accused of climatological change heresy I would point out that these same scientists claimed just 20 years ago that we were entering a new ice age and it would soon be too cold to live North of the Mason Dixon Line. Then Global Warming became the fashion statement of the scientific community so all of our coastal cities would soon be underwater or so it went. Then when the empirical data didn’t support that, the phenomenon was changed to be called Climate Change so a study could be commissioned hot or cold. I am not a climate change denier by any means but we must all be careful not to allow those so-called scientists who claim the sky is falling for one reason or another don’t take us down a path of wrong just to speculate that they are right.

    Best wishes,

    Arthur

    11/1/24

    Note: This is in response to an article in Aviation Week

    1

    By Airlaw

    IN MEMORIAM WILLIAM ANDERS

    Bill Anders lost his life in a tragic accident ending an exemplary career as an aviator an astronaut and a revered and loved husband and father.

    As he did frequently, Bill took his T-34 ex-military trainer for a routine flight in the beautiful skies over the San Juan Islands in Washington State.

    A video taken shows a meticulously flown flight path that he had flown countless times before around homes of friends he cared about so deeply.

    But Bill was 90 years of age and although healthy enough to fly, flying is a jealous mistress and if something goes wrong, whether it’s the airplane or the pilot, even for the most skilled, the outcome  can be unpredictable.

    As soon as the small piece of video of the last seconds of the flight was published, speculation on social media was rampant that Bill misjudged the bottom of a loop and crashed or he was not paying attention because his glasses fell off or he dropped his phone. Anyone who knew him and knew his discipline as a pilot would know that he would never allow something like that to happen and while it’s exciting to look at, a loop is one of the easiest of all aviation maneuvers to accomplish safely.

    A look at the entire video reveals instead that about 8 seconds before the crash, it appears that something went terribly wrong. The airplane instead of completing a turn, all of a sudden went vertical in descent and in the last few seconds it appears an effort was made to recover which was too little too late.

    Reconstructing aircraft accidents has been my life’s work and flying aerobatics in airshows was a past life.

    This accident is a classic case of momentary incapacitation resulting in a loss of control and when consciousness was regained a recovery was initiated that was too late. This same kind of accident has occurred countless times in the past whether in a military aircraft duringACM or a civilian aircraft while performing maneuvers that pull G’s regardless of youth or physical condition.

    Bill Anders was an awesome man who is honored for his unique contribution to aviation and remarkable aerospace achievements. He will be remembered fondly, lovingly and respectfully by all who knew him.

    What better tribute for a man!

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    June 12, 2024

    Photography by NASA & CelebJam

    3

    By Airlaw

    ALASKA AIRLINES’ DOOR DEPARTURE CAME WITHIN 5 MINUTES OF A CATASTROPHE

    Brand-new-Alaska-Airlines-Boeing-737-Max-suffers-BLOWOUT-through-1583465972 BY: nybreaking.comTwo things by coincidence prevented loss of life. First no one was sitting in Row 24, and second the airplane was only at 16,000 feet. Five minutes more and the aircraft would have been at 24,000 feet or higher where “max diff” between cabin pressure and outside pressure would have occurred.

    Loss of the door at that altitude or higher would have emptied the airplane of anything not strapped down and regardless row 24 would have left the airplane with any passengers seated there and maybe some other adjacent rows as well.

    The NTSB is looking for the door but examination of the retaining features which are still on the airplane will reveal a lot. Examining the drawings and any production variations of that component may tell investigators if the problem is one of design, manufacture, or both.

    The politics of this will be to blame it on a manufacturing error so the airplane does not stay grounded and the FAA lack of oversight gets off the hook.

    The problem with this incessant stretching of a seventy-year-old design is that things like doors or emergency escape hatches keep getting relocated and its expensive to engineer structure to close the opening so a plug is used to build the airplane faster, cheaper and be able to change the configuration if required or desirable in the future. The problem is a plug is not a door. It is not as robust as a door and if it were in fact a plug it could never have left the airplane the way it did because cabin pressure would have increased its rigidity in place not blow it off the airplane.

    Therefore, a serious investigation must be made of the “plug” design and it must be redesigned and certified if it turns out to be a patch instead.

    The Boeing 737 went from being a 100 passenger 120,000 lb. little airplane variation of the Boeing 707, in 1963, to a behemoth carrying 225 people and weighing in at 200,000 lbs. There is a limit to stretching a design and it looks like the Max has exceeded it. Too many accidents, too many problems and the airplanes are still new. Similar capacity airliners weigh 100,000 lbs. more so where is the weight saving, structure and materials. The Max is cheap to buy and lightweight, relatively, so it is fuel efficient and airlines are falling all over themselves to buy it. They have forgotten there is no free lunch in aviation.

    If nothing is found to explain the failure of the patch, then someone needs to look at how much flexing the fuselage of this extended length airplane, if any, may have contributed to this incident.

    Today, it was revealed that a pressurization warning appeared several times before this flight and the airplane was restricted by Alaska Airlines from flying long flights over water. Rule Number One in aviation is that airplanes do not fix themselves. That airplane should have been grounded until the problem was found and it was fixed. Every flight exposed all those passengers to potential injury and death. That is just plain wrong. The question remaining is whether Alaska maintenance contacted Boeing technical support for a solution. I’m very concerned that restricting an airliner from flying part of its FAA certified flight envelope without FAA concurrence is even legal irrespective of how reckless it may have been.

    Finally, it is reported that no data was able to be downloaded from the cockpit voice recorder. Really? That component retains the recordings for the last 2 hours of flight and maybe even more. There is a regulatory proposal to extend that to 24 hours like the rest of the world. This is odd because in years past the CVR recorded continuously the last 24 hours of cockpit discussions but for some reason the FAA allowed that to be reduced to only 2 hours.

    Boeing, Alaska Airlines and the FAA should breathe a sigh of relief that no one was killed either in the air or on the ground but this lack of FAA enforcement of its own regulations and worse the NTSB’s lack of collective experience in aircraft accident investigation makes the likelihood of finding the right reason for this near catastrophe very unlikely in my experience.

     

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    January 7. 2024

    Photo by Nybreaking.com

    1

    By Airlaw

    ARTHUR ALAN WOLK DONATES ANIMATRONIC GENERAL BENJAMIN O. DAVIS, JR. COMMANDER OF THE TUSKEGEE AIRMEN, TO THE SAN DIEGO AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

    Arthur Alan Wolk is pleased to announce that continuing with his lifelong commitment to the civil rights of all persons, he conceived of and donated an animatronic General Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. to the San Diego Air and Space Museum. General Davis will stand next to the red tail P-51 Mustang fighter as flown by the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame.

    General Davis was the leader of the Tuskegee Airmen and distinguished himself after the war becoming the highest ranking general of color in the United States Air Force. He was the son of the first general of color in the United States Army and represents one of the finest achievements of any person regardless of race in the military of the United States.

    The Tuskegee Airmen were an inspiration to youth everywhere that regardless of your circumstances, you can achieve anything you set out to do and overcome all adversity to become the best that you can be.

    I am especially pleased to have been able to honor an icon who represents the brave warriors of the America we love.

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    Video to follow

    October 6th, 2023

    1

    By Airlaw

    CHARLOTTESVILLE STATE POLICE HELICOPTER CRASH-NTSB NEVER OBTAINED THE RIGHT VIDEO – LITTLE WONDER WHY THEY GOT IT ALL WRONG

    The National Transportation Safety Board gets to investigate all fatal airplane crashes. So, when a Virginia State Police helicopter went down in Charlottesville while tending to the demonstrations there, it jumped right in to investigate.

    Whom did it invite to help? Bell, the maker of the helicopter, the Virginia State Police, Rolls Royce, the engine make and another component manufacturer. No one from the families of the two dead pilots were allowed to participate, and the NTSB and the Virginia State Police retained the wreckage for years not permitting anyone for the families to examine it.

    In the NTSB Factual Report, the Board attached a video taken from miles away that shows the crash as a little moving dot. That video is attached.

    But in truth there was another video, taken by someone who used her cell phone and was much closer. That video is attached.

    Some still photos were taken by another bystander before the crash dynamics fully developed and they too were distant.

    Well in my preparation for the trial of this case to start July 17th, I enlarged the video taken by the cell phone and it too is attached. What is plainly visible is that instead of this accident being from a Vortex Ring State, it was nothing of the kind. The helicopter was toppling end over end from a severed tail rotor drive shaft due to its spinning from a tail rotor pedal limiter that malfunctioned.

    The enlarged video side by side with a vortex ring state video shows without any doubt that the NTSB aided by all its manufacturer friends got it all wrong.

    Instead of gathering and considering all the evidence the NTSB once again helped to hide the real cause of the accident which is why more accidents will be caused for the same reason as this one just like others that have occurred in the past.

    Shame on them for not doing their job! Aviation safety depends on it!

    Please see the video below.

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    July 4th, 2023

    Contact The Wolk Law Firm
    p: (215) 545-4220
    c: (610) 733-4220
    f: (215) 545-5252

    For more commentaries, click here.

    See The Side by Side Video Below

    Witness Video

    Vulchard Video

    4

    By Airlaw

    VIRGINIA CITATION V CRASH- DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS

    The sad crash of a Citation V private jet is widely concluded by the media as a hypoxia event. That means loss of cabin pressure that resulted in loss of consciousness of the pilot.

    First, loss of cabin pressure is a trained for event in all jets and includes the recognition of a pressurization warning, a quick donning oxygen mask readily available to the pilot and a rapid descent even though passengers will also have oxygen available.

    For some reason, this pilot was rendered unconscious or unable to operate this aircraft at 34,000 feet even though he would have had a minute of useful consciousness in the event of loss of pressurization.

    That just doesn’t make sense. It takes only a couple of seconds to put on the oxygen mask.

    So long as the oxygen bottle was full and the mask functional this accident doesn’t happen due to hypoxia.

    So, what else is a possible scenario? The pilot could have become incapacitated for reasons other than hypoxia in which event the autopilot would have flown the airplane along the flight planned route and then if nothing was done at or before the destination turned the aircraft back on its route if that’s how the autopilot is programmed until it ran out of fuel.

    As the aircraft descended, the pilot would have regained consciousness quickly as the air became more dense. It usually takes at least 18,000 feet above sea level before consciousness is regained but descent while on autopilot even with no power is fairly benign.

    What is unusual about this accident is the report that the final descent was 20,000 feet per minute. No intact airplane descends that fast in one piece which leads me to believe that something or someone overstressed the airplane during its descent especially with both engines dead from no fuel.

    What could have occurred is both engines quit from fuel starvation, the autopilot tried to maintain level flight time and time again but could not and at some point, the autopilot disconnected, the airplane suffered an aerodynamic stall fell off on one wing and descended rapidly and the 20,000 feet per minute is an interpretation based upon initial descent rate. It is also possible as well that as the aircraft descended more and more rapidly, it broke apart which would account for the rapid descent as it was no longer intact. That would be similar to another Citation accident in Utah which due to an icing encounter, aerodynamically stalled, and broke apart at about 16,000 feet during the rapid descent in the stall.

    Some new jets, like the HondaJet and the Cirrus Jet have a button. If the pilot is incapacitated, a passenger can push the button, the airplane announces its emergency, picks a suitable airport and lands by itself. This is the latest technology that does not exist in the Citation V or most other aircraft.

    This is a sad day for the families of those who lost their lives. May their memories be a blessing.

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    June 6, 2023

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    January 22, 2023

    Contact The Wolk Law Firm
    p: (215) 545-4220
    c: (610) 733-4220
    f: (215) 545-5252

    For more commentaries, click here.

    Air Traffic Control Communications With The Pilot

    2

    By Airlaw

    ANOTHER NEEDLESS ENGINE FAILURE, ANOTHER TWO NEEDLESS DEATHS, MORE FAMILIES AND CHILDREN GRIEVING

    A Beechcraft A-36 Bonanza departed JFK Airport in New York on a rainy night returning home to Cleveland where their families awaited their return.

    The pilot, Boruch Taub and his passenger Binyamin Chafetz took off on a routine flight when all of a sudden, the aircraft lost its climb rate and on-board diagnostics revealed that power in at least one cylinder was lost and oil pressure was decreasing.

    Air Traffic Control afforded magnificent assistance to this pilot trying to give him radar vectors and reassurance to the Westchester New York Airport nearby but the workload and the loss of engine power was just too much to make the Instrument landing System to Runway 16  at the airport.

    The pilot was cool, calm and followed directions in this most highly stressful environment but sadly the aircraft crashed into trees near the airport and both occupants were killed.

    The engine in this model aircraft has failed and failed again in service. In fact, in one popular model, the primary source of accidents is the failed engine of similar make and model as this one.

    I owned a similar aircraft many years ago and once I became aware of and the victim of its litany of engine problems never owned one again.

    Here is the problem with reciprocating aircraft engines. They are old designs. They fail catastrophically too often. Failed cylinders are epidemic, this engine likely had a rod put through the cylinder wall or crankcase causing loss of oil pressure and the loss of power in the entire engine. There is no current alternative but anyone who flies a reciprocating engine powered aircraft is risking a catastrophe every takeoff. But the industry has been slick by misrepresenting the frequency of failures, near failures and potential failures so pilots think it will never happen to them. It does and it will.

    I attach the air traffic control communications which is instructive. First it teaches us that ATC can be of invaluable assistance in an emergency. It teaches us that some pilots make us proud to be in that community because of their professionalism, even in fear of death. You can read more in the article in The Stamford Advocate.

    Be prepared to cry, the knowledge that no matter how hard these men tried to save each other, it was not enough will break your heart.

    May the memories of Boruch Taub and Benyamin Chafetz be a blessing to their families.

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    January 22, 2023

    Contact The Wolk Law Firm
    p: (215) 545-4220
    c: (610) 733-4220
    f: (215) 545-5252

    For more commentaries, click here.

    Air Traffic Control Communications With The Pilot

    2

    By Airlaw

    NEPALESE ATR-500 CRASH APPEARS TO BE LEFT ENGINE FAILURE

    The tragic loss of life in this crash is appalling and appears to be due to a loss of power on the left engine.

    The airplane was approaching the airport slowly and as it slowed further it appears that it rolled into the left engine and went down knife edge into a ravine.

    The video is a typical engine failure scenario where if one engine fails and power is applied with the remaining engine the aircraft will want to roll into the dead engine.

    For that to happen the aircraft has to be slower than VMCA, the minimum control airspeed with engine failure and the good engine at takeoff (not landing) power.

    What happens is that when surprised by engine failure or loss of power the crew may swimming in glue in the cockpit unable to address the airplane’s abnormal flying characteristics quickly enough to prevent it from going out of control.

    Other potential causes are propeller failure which adds drag on the left side or just a stall (aerodynamic not engine) from getting too slow on the approach. One would hope with all the built in safeguards an inadvertent stall is the lowest likelihood on the list.

    Lastly, every airliner today takes off overloaded. The weights of the typical passenger are much higher than the weights that are computed when the airplane is certified for both men and women (just look around you)and baggage is much heavier as well. This makes an engine failure even worse and stall speeds even higher than published.

    The cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorders will be important as well as the experience and training of the crew. It would be important to see what speed the airplane was flying on this approach as it appears slow and that may well be a factor as control was lost.

    May the memories of all aboard be a blessing to their families.

    Arthur Alan Wolk

    January 15, 2023

    Contact The Wolk Law Firm
    p: (215) 545-4220
    c: (610) 733-4220
    f: (215) 545-5252

    For more commentaries, click here.

    2

    By Airlaw

    Arthur Wolk presented with the Wilbur and Orville Wright Master Pilot Award

    The Federal Aviation Administration presented the founder of The Wolk Law Firm, Arthur Alan Wolk, with the coveted Master Pilot Award.

    It is reserved for those pilots who have dedicated themselves to aviation safety for fifty years.

    The Wolk Law Firm is unique in that its founder holds multiple Type Ratings in jet aircraft, is airshow qualified for aerobatics down to 400 feet AGL and is airshow formation qualified.

    He is also an Airline Transport Pilot for both single-engine and multi-engine land and sea airplanes.

    The Wolk Law Firm is proud to acknowledge this achievement, demonstrating compelling reasons for it to be considered the standard against which all other aviation law firms are measured.

     

    November 16, 2022

    Contact The Wolk Law Firm
    p: (215) 545-4220
    c: (610) 733-4220
    f: (215) 545-5252

    For more commentaries, click here.

    2

    The Wolk Law Firm

    We get results. From the largest aviation verdict of all time, $480,000,000, to many other recoveries measured in the tens of millions, there isn’t any peer for The Wolk Law Firm. What makes The Wolk Law Firm unique is commitment to their clients – they handle nothing but air crash cases for plaintiffs.

    Our Office

    Contact Us

    1710-12 Locust Street
    Philadelphia . PA . 19103
    Phone: 215.545.4220
    Fax: 215.545.5252
    E-Mail : airlaw@airlaw.com
    www.airlaw.com ©