All Safety News – Page 1383
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News
CityLine record
Lufthansa CityLine carried more than 3 million passengers for the first time during 1996, helped by the growth of its fleet which is now exclusively built around regional jets. Although the regional carrier saw sales grow by more than 20%to above DM1 billion ($590 million) in 1996, the company's pre-tax ...
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Power shortage
According to current folklore, engine makers don't actually make any money out of building engines: they give them away, and then hope they will recoup the cost out of spares and maintenance in years to come. The engine makers, at least in public, will reject that as a wild exaggeration, ...
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The cost of free flight
RUNNING an orderly air-traffic-management (ATM) system using airways, by definition, confines aircraft to a fraction of the airspace available. At a time when the skies are becoming increasingly crowded - particularly in Europe - any ATM system which fails to use all available airspace is, therefore, giving up part of ...
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Competition: or is it not competition?
Sir - Am I the only person to have identified a huge degree of inconsistency recently among European Commission (EC) Transport Commissioner Neil Kinnock and his cohorts in Brussels of competitive issues? As an example, following the Office of Fair Trading report into the proposed alliance between American ...
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Boeing orders fuel-tank checks on all 747s
All Boeing 747 operators will receive a service bulletin (SB) this month detailing inspection procedures for centre-wing fuel tanks, the manufacturer says. The SB relates to the continuing investigation into the July 1996 crash of a Trans World Airways (TWA) 747 which has "-determined that the centre-wing tank ...
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Top executives leave ANA
All Nippon Airways (ANA) has been hit by a major high-level personnel shake-up, with the airline's top five senior executives and chairman all announcing their resignations, only days after the company's president Seiji Fukatsu was forced to quit. Almost one-third of ANA's 32-member board of directors are to ...
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NTSB wants 1900 CVRs improved
Beech 1900 regional-aircraft operators should be required to inspect and repair deficient cockpit-voice recorders, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has recommended. Safety Board investigators say that they had trouble understanding crucial radio transmissions from the United Express Beech 1900 which collided with a Beech King Air ...
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Africa faces the call to improve ATC
Measures to improve airport, air-traffic-control (ATC) and communications infrastructures in Africa have been agreed at an International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) meeting in Abija, Nigeria. ATC safety standards in Africa were recently condemned by organisations such as the International Federation of Air Line Pilots and the International Air ...
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MDC advances crack checks on MD-90s
McDonnell Douglas (MDC) MD-90s will have to be checked for airframe fatigue cracking earlier than originally estimated, results from the fatigue-test airframe and other structural analysis have revealed. It will be years before the lead airframe in service reaches the newly designated 16,000-cycle point, when the first checks ...
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Boeing plans heavier 777-200IGW
Boeing plans to boost the maximum take-off weight (MTOW) of the 777-200IGW (increased gross-weight) variant by 7,000kg, allowing the aircraft's maximum range with 375 passengers to be stretched to about 14,000km (7,600nm). The jump to the new 294,200kg MTOW level was approved after the completion of structural tests ...
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Air France leaps into profit
Air France has posted its first profits since 1989, although the upbeat results from the mainline airline were tainted by deepening losses at its strike-hit sister company, domestic carrier Air France Europe. The profits at Air France mark a successful end to the three-year restructuring programme which was ...
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End of an era
The demise of the BAe/AI(R) Jetstream 41 commuter airliner represents another step in the (often involuntary) rationalisation of the regional-turboprop market. It also, however, raises serious questions about the future of the lower end of regional-airline operations. There can be little surprise in British Aerospace's decision to cease ...
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Time to stop dreaming
The general-aviation industry in the USA is putting its money where its mouth has been for a long time. It is sponsoring a television-advertising campaign in an effort to revitalise the US pilot population and to reverse a decade-long decline in the number of people learning to fly for pleasure. ...
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MAKing aviation work in the CIS
The CREATION OF THE MAK (Interstate Aviation Committee) in December 1991, as the first intergovernmental body to be formed by the then-new CIS, was an acknowledgement of the need to present a common approach to major questions of aviation among the countries of the former Soviet Union. While most aviation ...
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Bearing failures blamed on poor lubrication
The spate of Trent 700 engine shutdowns has been traced to insufficient lubrication of the driving-shaft locator ball-bearing in the Hispano Suiza-manufactured step-aside gearbox. This has resulted in premature fatigue and failure of the bearing, because of overheating. According to R-R, the problem resulted from a weakness in ...
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Cathay prepares to modify gearboxes on Trent 700s
Cathay Pacific and Dragonair are hoping that fitting modified engine-gearboxes to their Rolls-Royce Trent 700-powered Airbus Industrie A330-300s will clear the way for the grounded aircraft to return to service by early this week. Both carriers voluntarily grounded their 15 A330s on 24 May, following an inflight engine ...
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United introduces virtual maintenance training
UNITED AIRLINES HAS introduced a "virtual-reality" training tool designed to improve the troubleshooting skills of Boeing 737 maintenance technicians. Wicat Systems' Maintenance Virtual Workplace is in- tended to reduce the incidence of component removals when no fault is found. The Virtual Workplace is a CD-ROM-based desktop training aid ...
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Lessons from the jump seat
Sir - It may be true that there is no place for the flight engineer on the flightdeck of modern aircraft, but recent history suggests that another pair of eyes and ears in the jump seat might make a contribution to safety. It is interesting to note the ...
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Airbus intensifies research efforts into human factors
Airbus Industrie is stepping up human-factors research in preparation for the service entry of several new ultra-long-range aircraft under development. In one initiative, the consortium is studying a "Pilot Guard" system for maintaining pilot alertness on very-long-range flights. Tests of an initial version of the system are due ...