All Safety News – Page 1394
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Recovered TWA No 2 engine has turbine blades missing
INVESTIGATORS working on the Trans World Airlines (TWA) Boeing 747-100 crash off Long Island, New York, in July are still searching for conclusive evidence of what triggered the explosions, which destroyed the aircraft. The badly damaged No 2 engine has now been recovered, however, and is understood to have three ...
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USA/Mexico GPS
The USA and Mexico have established technical pacts on satellite-based navigational systems and other navigational services. The two sides can now formally begin co-operative work on future navigation systems involving the global-positioning system (GPS). Also established are specific functional areas of air-navigation services under which co-operative projects may be instituted ...
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USA and Venezuela fight over safety
AIR SERVICES BETWEEN the USA and Venezuela stopped on 7 August, with both countries grounding each other's aircraft. US Federal Aviation Administration officials in Miami had grounded two Venezuelan airliners for safety reasons. Venezuelan inspectors in Caracas then grounded two American Airlines aircraft. Services have been resumed following talks in ...
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Brand X
Vance Brand, former astronaut and assistant chief of the Shuttle and Flight Support Office at NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, Edwards AFB, California, will lead the five person official inquiry into the crash of the McDonnell Douglas/NASA Clipper Graham DC-XA after its landing at White Sands, New Mexico, on 31 ...
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Firefighting crash
A Canadair CL-215 fire fighting amphibian of Italy's civil-protection service crashed on 30 July while scooping water from a lake in Sicily, killing one crewmember and injuring the other. Source: Flight International
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Caribbean accident
An AeroCaribe de Havilland Canada Twin Otter crashed in jungle some 20m (65ft) short of the airfield at Playa del Carmen, Yucatan, Mexico, killing one passenger and injuring badly the other 16 on board. One of the pilots reported that a flying-control cable appeared to have failed. ...
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Airbuses can now predict windshear
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE claims that it is the first manufacturer to deliver aircraft direct from the production line equipped with predictive windshear warning systems. Two A340s recently delivered to Spanish flag carrier Iberia are fitted with AlliedSignal's forward-looking windshear-detection system. A rival system is offered by Rockwell's Collins Air ...
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ValuJet remains in profit despite FAA's grounding
Kevin O'Toole/LONDONRamon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC VALUJET HAS ended the first half-year in good financial shape, despite its grounding, and appears confident of resuming operations on 23 August. Although the airline was grounded by the US Federal Aviation Administration shortly after the Florida crash on 11 May, ...
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Europe shows FAA advanced ATC
Julian Moxon/PARIS THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is evaluating Eurocontrol's advanced air-traffic-control (ATC) technology to help it decide on investment in automated ATC systems. Eurocontrol is mounting a real-time simulation of its operational-display and input-development (ODID) system at its Bretigny-sur-Orge experimental centre, near Paris, to ...
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Tracking down spare parts
Airline outsourcing is hardly front-page news, but most spares-suppliers welcome the attention. Some spare-parts companies are enjoying growth Karen Walker/ATLANTA THE AIRCRAFT spare-parts industry is unsure of itself. At the same time as some companies are enjoying growth, others face uncertain futures. New regulations around ...
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IATA plans trial flights over North Korea
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE THE INTERNATIONAL Air Transport Association (IATA) expects to conduct the first trials of international flights through North Korean airspace by October, following agreement with Pyongyang to open up its flight-information region (FIR). IATA hopes that the proving flights will lead to new air ...
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Cathay profits, despite tough half-year
CATHAY PACIFIC Airways produced a respectable rise in profits over the first half of the year, despite restrained growth and some pressure on costs. Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering (HAECO), the Hong Kong carrier's sister company within the Swire Group, saw profits dip again, however. Financial analysts are ...
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KLM suffers setback as costs increase
KLM has worried financial markets with an unexpectedly poor set of first-quarter figures, revealing a steep rise in costs and further bad news from its cargo operations. Attention has focused on a drop in the Dutch carrier's operating profits, which slumped by half over the quarter to the end of ...
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FBI agents raid SabreTech premises
US FEDERAL BUREAU of Investigation (FBI) agents have raided Miami-based SabreTech, maintenance contractor to ValuJet and alleged to be implicated in the cause of the 11 May crash, seizing company documents. FBI officials will not discuss the reasons for the search. Meanwhile, Lewis Jordan, president of grounded ValuJet, ...
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Leaked figures lead to suspension of Lauda Air shares
Shares in Lauda Air were suspended on the Vienna stock exchange after a bank official prematurely released first-half financial figures showing a sharp increase in first-half losses. Following the leak on 6 August, shareholders fought to sell off Lauda shares ahead of the official announcement, which was brought ...
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Lufthansa Technik warns against maintenance monopoly dangers
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH LUFTHANSA TECHNIK (LHT) chairman Wolfgang Mayrhuber has criticised manufacturers which offer their own maintenance packages for aircraft and aero engines. LHT says that aircraft and engine manufacturers are increasingly attempting to "-elbow their way" into the maintenance and overhaul market and restrict current ...
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Delta launches low-cost Express from Florida base
Karen Walker/ATLANTA DELTA AIRLINES has entered the low-fare market with the launch of Delta Express, a single-class service providing non-stop flights between Florida and cities in the mid-western and north-eastern USA. Services, using a dedicated fleet of 25 Boeing 737-200s, will begin on 1 October ...
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Engines should be treated separately
Sir - Recent news suggests that civil organisations do not seem to share their safety-related views. I was amazed to find that an airline could conduct the same maintenance task, simultaneously, on both engines of a twin without a test before flight. Surely, if there is a need, for example, ...
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NTSB urges increase in inspections of JT8D fan-hubs
INCREASED inspection of Pratt & Whitney JT8D-200-series fan hubs has been urged by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), following July's uncontained failure of an engine on a Delta Air Lines McDonnell Douglas MD-88. Two passengers were killed and four injured when the left-engine hub disintegrated, sending debris ...
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China backs US gyroplane
US GYROPLANE developer Groen Brothers Aviation (GBA) has signed a letter of intent covering licence-assembly of its aircraft in China. Shanghai Energy and Chemicals (SECC) plans to buy 200 H2X three-seat commercial gyroplanes with which to establish an air-taxi company in China, and for corporate transport around congested Shanghai. SECC ...