Duane Kritzinger joins R.G.W. Cherry & Associates Limited

R.G.W. Cherry & Associates are pleased to announce that Duane Kritzinger has taken up a senior position with the company. Duane is internationally recognised as a leader in the system safety field. He is highly experienced in the application of system safety techniques and during his career has been responsible for the safety engineering of major civil and military projects. He lectures regularly on this subject worldwide and is the author of Aircraft System Safety: Civil and Military Aeronautical Applications.

Duane has extensive experience in all aspects of airworthiness and certification having held the responsibility for managing certification and continued airworthiness in both the civil and military fields. He has a proven and successful track record in quality control and management, including organisation approvals.

In addition, Duane excels in both the Project and Through Life Support Management fields, having many years experience in successfully managing both civil and military high-value projects and programmes

Duane will be responsible for managing many of the company's projects with particular responsibility for systems safety-related tasks.

Developments in Integrated Fire Protection

It had been suggested by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with the support of Transport Canada, that a strategy for aircraft enhanced fire protection should be developed by integrating current technologies that are not commonly utilised on transport aircraft.

Transport Canada has requested that an evaluation be made of the feasibility of such an Integrated Fire Protection System and R.G.W. Cherry & Associates are carrying out extensive research on their behalf in this area.

The concept of an Integrated Fire Protection System originates from the potential availability of Nitrogen Enriched Air (NEA) produced by an Onboard Inert Gas Generation System (OBIGGS) primarily intended for fuel tank inerting.

Combined with a water mist system, the available Nitrogen Enriched Air has the potential to be a replacement for Halon 1301 as a cargo compartment fire suppression agent. Furthermore, a Cabin Water Mist System could potentially be cost beneficial if the cargo and cabin systems could “share” elements of the water mist system. There is also the possibility of using the NEA as an on-demand fire suppressant for hidden areas, equipment bays, and wheel wells.

This subject has attracted much interest in the aircraft industry and, to this end, an Integrated Fire Protection Task Group (including members from airworthiness authorities, aircraft and equipment manufacturers) has been established. This Group, a subgroup of the International Aircraft Systems Fire Protection Working Group, will provide advice and guidance on future research on this subject.

Please click here for the most recent presentation on Integrated Fire Protection Systems given at the International Aircraft Systems Fire Protection Working Group meeting held in London during 2 - 3 April 2008.

New Release of the Cabin Safety Research Technical Group Accident Database

Issue 31 of the CSRTG Accident Database is now available for download, having been the subject of a major update including the incorporation of aircraft accidents occurring during 2007. Click here to access the update.

UK CAA Cabin Crew Firefighting Training Needs Analysis Project

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has received an overwhelming number of responses to its on-line survey to gain the views of cabin crew, flight crew, trainers and other interested parties on the current training practices and standards involved in dealing with in-flight fires.

The survey will help inform an evaluation of current fire training practices and standards for cabin crew that has been commissioned by the CAA. The study is entitled: ‘Training Needs Analysis for Cabin Crew Fire Training’ and will be carried out by RGW Cherry & Associates Ltd.

We will continue collecting responses until the end of May 2008.

Please click here for more information and to participate in the survey.