All Safety News – Page 1296
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News
Swisscargo drops spin-off proposal
Swissair's cargo division, Swisscargo, has ditched proposals to spin off its own freight airline and will instead expand its existing strategy of wet-lease and block space agreements. The tentative plan to set up the cargo airline was studied in 1997, when an initial three of five Boeing 747-300 passenger ...
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Surat Thani crash brings Thai aviation reform a step closer
Thai transport minister Suthep Thaugsuban has promised to reform the country's aviation bodies following the fatal crash of a Thai Airways International Airbus A310 at Surat Thani 11 December. Suthep, whose sister was among the 101 dead out of 146 people on board, says the results of the crash ...
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Government bank plans CAL bid
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The Taiwanese Government-owned China Development Bank (CDB)has declared an interest in buying a 35.5% stake in China Airlines (CAL), days after Singapore Airlines (SIA) dropped its bid. CDB is an investment arm of Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party and owns about 2% of CAL together with another ...
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US KC-135 crash
A US Air National Guard Boeing KC-135 tanker crashed near Geilenkirchen, Germany, on 13 January, killing all four crew members. The aircraft was returning to base after refuelling a NATO Boeing E-3 and had made a go-around. The aircraft, with 18,000 litres (4,750USgal) of fuel, exploded on impact and burned ...
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Management actions
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Flight management systems (FMS) are no longer luxury items found only on large airliners, but essential equipment on commercial aircraft of all sizes and ages. The reason is the navigation accuracy now possible and the cost benefits available to airlines in the form of fuel and ...
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Command decisions
Julian Moxon/PARIS Any doubts about the safety and cost effectiveness of fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control systems on civil aircraft were long ago dispelled with the success of Airbus Industrie's single-aisle A320 and, later, the European consortium's twin-aisle models. The justifications used by Airbus for introducing FBW were several, ...
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Lancair investigates Columbia 300 crash
Lancair and the US National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the loss of the first Columbia 300 four-seater after it crashed into the Columbia River close to Portland International Airport, Oregon, on 8 January. Lancair company pilot Hans Oesch and a passenger are missing, believed dead, following the discovery ...
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SAS opts for A330/A340s but order awaits cost cuts to bite
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH SAS has selected the Airbus A330/A340 family for its planned long-haul fleet renewal but is holding off signing a firm order until its internal cost cutting targets have been met. The airline has decided to reject Boeing's offer of 10 Boeing 777-200ERs in favour of a ...
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Safest approaches are those flown...
Safest approaches are those flown at 3¼ angle- David Lonsdale's letter (Flight International, 23 December, 1998-5 January, 1999, P48) makes the very valid point that the safest approaches flown in a swept-wing transport are those that are close to a 3¼ angle, and the reply from SAS (Flight International, 6-12 ...
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Pop goes the boom
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON On the face of it, the Airbus and Boeing orderbooks have so far escaped much of the Asian gloom, with a third successive year of solid sales and production records. Order deferrals, however, have already begun, and airliner salesmen are bracing themselves for a tougher time ahead ...
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Air France pilots back wage cuts
Eight out of 10 Air France pilots have agreed to wage cuts and a subsequent freeze in salaries in return for a stake in the airline when it is partially privatised. The decision means that the French Government can go ahead with its partial privatisation plans, under which up ...
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Israel opens up cargo market
El Al is to decrease its cargo carrying capability in reaction to an Israeli Government committee recommendation to allow a private company to fly scheduled cargo services from the country. The committee, headed by the director-general of the Israeli ministry of transport, has recommended that Cargo Air Lines (CAL) ...
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Marketplace (1)
-UK remarketing agent Cabot Aviation has purchased Thai Airways International's two eight-year-old ATR 42-320s, which are now being offered for onward sale or lease. -Swedish lessor Indigo Aviation has acquired two Boeing 737-400s which are currently leased to Istanbul Airlines and Italy's Blue Panorama. The aircraft are leased until 2003. ...
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SIA abandons plan to buy stake in China Airlines
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Singapore Airlines (SIA) has abandoned plans to buy a stake in Taiwan-based China Airlines (CAL), ending proposals for a strategic tie-up, including codesharing, frequent flyer links and lounge sharing. In August 1998, SIA announced a memorandum of understanding with CAL, covering a wide-ranging alliance, with SIA ...
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Thai authorities push for ILS at regional airports
The Thai Civil Aviation Department is pushing for government funds to upgrade landing aids at 16 provincial airports, following the recent crash of a Thai International Airbus A310 on approach to Surat Thani. The instrument landing system (ILS) at Surat Thani had been out of commission for two years ...
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Software problems delay WAAS implementation
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has delayed initial fielding of the Raytheon Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) by at least 14 months because of software development problems. The WAAS was to have entered service in July 1999, but the FAA says this has been pushed back to September ...
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JAL shareholder calls for senior management resignations
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The biggest single shareholder in Japan Airlines (JAL) has called for top management resignations following the airline's drop in profit and turnover in recent years. Eitaro Itoyama who owns about 4% of the airline, has demanded that the company's board of directors and president Isao Kaneko ...
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Belt and braces
Achieving a satisfactory level of safety used to be considered straight-forward: build good aeroplanes, train good pilots, respect an aircraft's limitations in the face of the elements, and take off, trusting that nothing beyond the capabilities of the aircraft/pilot team will occur. Key words in the traditional approach included "belt ...
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Niche accidents
David Learmount/LONDON Despite a worldwide campaign to reduce it, controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) increased in 1998 for the second year running, both among jet and non-jet flights, confirming the reversal of a previously favourable trend. There were five jet CFIT accidents and eight involving propeller-driven commercial aircraft. This ...
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Dynamic explorers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Three small NASA spacecraft will explore the earth's dynamic systems early in the new millennium. One of the satellites, called Volcanic Ash Mission (Volcam), will demonstrate the operational and scientific applications of monitoring volcanic clouds and small atmospheric particles, known as aerosols, from a geostationary orbit. Volcanic clouds ...