The Air Line Pilots Association told US safety regulators Thursday the union was concerned about “a potential, significant aviation system safety deficiency” in the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft, one of which crashed last month in Indonesia. Boeing and the US FAA issued guidance about the 737 Max’s aviation system last week after a Lion Air jet crashed in Indonesia on Oct. 29, killing all 189 people on board. But the pilots union’s president, Tim Canoll, said in a letter to the FAA and NTSB made public on Thursday that “the lack of critical safety information being provided to the air carriers and frontline operators is concerning.” Boeing, asked for comment on the letter, said it was “taking every measure to fully understand all aspects of this incident, working closely with the investigating team and all regulatory authorities involved.” The company added that it was “confident in the safety of the 737 MAX.” ALPA, the largest US pilots union, represents 61,000 pilots at 34 airlines in the United States and Canada. Its letter said that it wants agencies working with Boeing “to communicate all relevant information to the operators to ensure the continued safe operation of this aircraft.”<br/>
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The DoT announced Thursday that it will create a task force to review procedures surrounding episodes of sexual misconduct by airplane passengers. The announcement said Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao was establishing the National In-Flight Sexual Misconduct Task Force to review practices and protocols for US airlines in handling allegations. The task force will be established as a subcommittee of the Aviation Consumer Protection Advisory Committee, a newly reconstituted panel due to meet for the first time in January. Task force members will be announced at that meeting. The body "will also provide recommendations to the ACPAC on best practices relating to training, reporting and data collection regarding incidents of sexual misconduct by passengers on board commercial aircraft," according to the announcement.<br/>
Hong Kong’s new air accident investigation team was on Thursday called in to look into how two aeroplanes ended up on the same runway at the city’s airport. It would be a first major job for the agency, recently set up to conform with global rules requiring investigations to be independent of local air regulators. Revealing the details of the incident on Wednesday, a CAD spokesman said the business jet, which had flown from the Philippines, had acknowledged an instruction of the control officer to clear the runway quickly. He added that “the two aircraft were more than 1,800 metres apart when the [second] airliner touched down”. The department said no one was injured and the operation of the airport was unaffected. It reported the incident to the AAIA. Civic Party legislator Jeremy Tam Man-ho, a commercial pilot, said Wednesday that having two planes on the same runway was dangerous, and the rules state there should not be a plane on the runway when another is landing. He said investigators would want to look into why the business jet took so long to leave the runway, and why the control officer did not instruct the pilot of the China Southern plane to go around and try to land later.<br/>