All Safety News – Page 1205
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News
CAA's hands are tied on foreign operators' safety standards
Peter Gray expressed the view that the UK Civil Aviation Authority should have a role in excluding airlines with a dubious safety history from operating in the UK (Letters, Flight International, 18-24 January). The CAA Safety Regulation Group [SRG] supports the contention that a strong safety culture is an essential ...
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Cosmic rays' legal consequences...
Cosmic rays' legal consequences Your article on aircrew illness caused by cosmic radiation (Flight International, 25-31 January, P60) was well constructed and timely, but the legal comments may lull insurers and carriers into a false sense of security. The epidemiological evidence suggests that there is a correlation between certain types ...
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AEA calls for details of countries' radio capacity plans
The Association of European Airlines (AEA) has written to the directors general of civil aviation of seven countries requesting information on their plans to open new sectors following the implementation of 8.33kHz channel-spacing last year. The mandatory carriage of 8.33kHz-compatible airborne radio equipment came into effect in October above ...
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Tests of Australian aircraft show most suffer contamination
More than 90% of the grounded Australian piston-engined aircraft fleet tested are polluted with the ethylene diamine fuel contaminant. Tests are continuing on the rest of the 5,000 suspect aircraft. Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has issued an airworthiness directive calling for tear-down inspections of aircraft fuel systems ...
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Garuda joins Asian recovery
Garuda Indonesia claims to have broken-even last year, reversing seven years of losses. The carrier's president, Abdulgani, says preliminary, unaudited, figures for 1999 show a 600 million rupiah ($83,000) net profit, after 1998's two trillion rupiah ($275 million) net loss. He says recent restructuring efforts are paying off. Abdulgani ...
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Indian Airlines to be privatised
Julian Moxon/MUMBAI Mehar Singh/NEW DELHI India's new coalition government has announced the privatisation of Indian Airlines, opening one of the world's largest domestic carriers to investors. Foreign airlines will be barred from the bidding process, however. In a parallel move by prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, five of the ...
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Seoul issues KAL maintenance directive
The South Korean Government has issued a directive ordering Korean Air (KAL) to enhance maintenance at airports outside South Korea. The order follows the 22 December crash of a Boeing 747-200F freighter at London Stansted Airport in the UK. A faulty attitude director indicator is believed to have contributed to ...
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Legend battles for February launch
Embattled Legend Airlines plans to initiate services from Dallas Love Field, Texas, late this month if it overcomes legal challenges from American Airlines, the city of Fort Worth and Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport. Legend, which planned to begin interstate business-class operations last September, using six 56-seat McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30s, ...
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Crew drills highlighted at Little Rock crash hearing
On its fatal 2 June, 1999, night approach to Little Rock Airport, Arkansas, the crew of American Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-82 Flight 1420 had difficulty lining up with the runway, the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) has revealed. Released at a US National Transportation Safety Board public hearing, the CVR ...
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UK to introduce compulsory terrain warning systems use
David Learmount/LONDON In a move anticipating European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) action making terrain avoidance and warning systems (TAWS) compulsory, the UK Civil Aviation Authority is to order that UK-registered aircraft be fitted with the equipment from next January. TAWS is expected to reduce dramatically the incidence of ...
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TWA banks on Middle East and Caribbean for recovery
Ramon Lopez/NEW YORK After a decade of losses, two trips to the bankruptcy court and the crash of Flight 800, Trans World Airlines is counting on the Middle East, the Caribbean and regional jets to help it pursue its recovery plan. TWA, the USA's eighth-largest airline, in early ...
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Wreckage salvaged
The wreckage of the first stage engine of the H-2 booster that crashed into the Pacific Ocean during an aborted launch in November has been salvaged from the seabed, 380km (235 miles) north west of the Ogasawara Islands. Source: Flight International
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Airports
More than 10 groups are preparing to deliver detailed proposals to acquire a 41.33% stake in SAGAT, which runs Turin Caselle Airport. The identity of the bidders has not been disclosed, but sources suggest they include the main Italian airport operators, such as Milan and Rome, along with some private ...
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Boeing targets 'out of box' 207min ETOPS for 777X
Guy Norris/SEATTLE Boeing is to certificate its proposed ultra-long range 777X variants for 207min extended-range twin-engine operations (ETOPS) for "out of the box" entry into service in September 2003. The radical move comes as the US Federal Aviation Administration gives its long-delayed green light to 207min ETOPS for current ...
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Let L-410 crashes just after take-off
Just after take-off from Tobias Bolanos Airport at San Juan, Costa Rica, on 15 January, a Taxi Aereo Centroamericano Let L-410 crashed into a house, killing four people among the three crew and 17 passengers on board and injuring 14. Although there were three people in the house, none was ...
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Cathay seeks more aircraft as it revives growth plan
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Cathay Pacific Airways is to buy and lease more aircraft this year as it revives plans to double its passenger traffic as the economic situation improves in Asia. The airline confirms statements made to the Hong Kong press by Cathay chairman James Hughes-Hallett, and to an aerospace industry ...
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Reasons to be fearful
The downward trend of fatality numbers continues, but worries remain over differences in regional safety standards David Learmount/LONDON All is not well with airline safety. Despite fewer fatalities in 1999, accident numbers equalled those in 1998, and some significant international airlines - most notably a few key carriers in the ...
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Fuel prices mar US results
Chris Jasper/LONDON The spiralling cost of aviation fuel prevented the USA's major carriers from improving their performances in 1999, although they reported largely positive results. Share disposal windfalls saved the net results of most, however. American Airlines' parent AMR, the world's biggest airline group in terms of turnover, saw ...
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Promising future
The 1990s were years of unprecedentedly intense activity aimed at improving airline safety. So what happened? There were more fatal accidents and more human casualties in that decade than in the 1980s. Despite active flight safety campaigns by major international agencies, more modern aircraft and air traffic control systems, ...
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Comment by Pierre Jeanniot, Director General, IATA
"For the 21st century, the most critical question is whether - given the increasing technical sophistication of our industry and the expectations of the public - ICAO's 185 sovereign member states will all develop the individual competence and financial means to provide effective safety oversight and "state-of-the-art" infrastructure. A ...