All Safety News – Page 1396
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Alliance: is it a beauty or beast?
The proposed American/BA alliance poses the latest big challenge for the regulators.Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, says the old saying. In other words, it all depends on your perspective. Take the proposed American Airlines- British Airways link, where the truth is obscured by a maelstrom of claims ...
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ValuJet aims to limp back
ValuJet, which was grounded by the US Federal Aviation Administration in mid-June, is attempting an August comeback with a significantly smaller fleet and in the face of a highly circumspect public. ValuJet filed a plan of operational and management reorganisation to the FAA in mid-July, hoping to convince ...
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Can Blanc do it BA's way?
Christian Blanc must have cast an envious glance across the water to his counterpart at British Airways after the UK carrier stopped a strike by its pilots at the eleventh hour. Still the Air France chairman may yet have divided the disgruntled pilots at Air France enough to push through ...
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Latin tie-ups for American
American Airlines is heating up the Latin American market, forcing its agenda in Colombia while signing up the El Salvador-based Taca consortium of airlines to an extensive codesharing pact that the new partners hope will end with antitrust immunity and US-Central America open skies. This may be the first of ...
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CAA/BAA's 'rosy relationship'
Sir - The comments made by The Times newspaper of the UK on 17 July, responding to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquiry on behalf of the UK Civil Aviation Authority into airports authority BAA, are timely, uncannily accurate, and sum up with commendable clarity the relationship between BAA (a ...
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Swanwick delays cost CAA dearly
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON THE UK CIVIL AVIATION Authority has confirmed that delays to the UK's new Swanwick en route air-traffic-control centre will leave it with a bill of around £10 million ($15.6 million), but says that it hopes to avoid raising user charges to meet the costs. ...
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Aaxico Industries flushes out BA's DC-10 blue-ice blues
BRITISH AIRWAYS hopes to slash the cost of implementing US Federal Aviation Administration airworthiness directives (ADs) concerning the formation of "blue ice" on aircraft, with the introduction of a testing device developed by Aaxico Industries of the UK. The FAA ADs, which initially apply to the McDonnell ...
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P&WC tests Calcor nozzle
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA PRATT & WHITNEY Canada has completed initial tests of Calcor Aero Systems' thrust-reverser/variable-exhaust-nozzle (REVEN) on a PW306. Calcor says that the engine runs, in a Toronto test cell, give it confidence that the nozzle will reduce specific fuel consumption (SFC) and increase thrust in altitude ...
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Untested software is blamed for failure of Ariane 5 launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE FAILURE of the maiden launch of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Ariane 5 on 4 June resulted from the booster flying with an Ariane 4 dual-inertial reference system (IRS) untested for use in a new launch environment. The system also had "specification and design ...
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The Top Fifty Airlines
The world airline industry made record profits in 1995, but will the boom last? The signs are mixed from this year's ranking of the world's top 50passenger-airline groups. Kevin O'Toole/LONDON IT HAS TAKEN a long time to arrive, but recovery in the world airline industry appears to ...
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Aviastar builds the first 'Westernised' An-124
AVIASTAR IS nearing completion of the first "Westernised" Antonov An-124 at its Ulyanovsk factory, although the Russian manufacturer's claims that the aircraft is being fitted with General Electric CF6-80 engines are being disputed by GE and Antonov. "The aircraft, line number 08-03 and designated An-124-130, will be ...
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Pilatus improves PC-12 range
Julian Moxon/PARIS SWISS general-aviation manufacturer Pilatus is introducing a range of factory options to improve the payload and range performance of the PC-12 business and utility aircraft. The first option in the Pilatus Power Products range became available on new production aircraft in July, with ...
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Antonov's second An-70 nears completion despite lack of funding
THE SECOND Antonov An-70 propfan-powered medium transport is nearing completion at the design bureau's prototype plant in Kiev. The programme has been stalled since the first aircraft crashed in early 1995. Antonov deputy general designer Oleg Bogdanov says that the airframe and wiring has been completed, and ...
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ARIA looks to PW2000s to improve Il-96-300s
ILYUSHIN IS TO DEVELOP modifications to the Il-96-300 to allow Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines (ARIA) to re-engine its Il-96 fleet with Pratt & Whitney PW2037 turbofans, and improve reliability. A formal agreement on the design work, which was signed recently by ARIA's general director Marshal Evgeni ...
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Boeing 747-X flies by wire
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES BOEING HAS AGREED to airline demands to offer a full fly-by-wire (FBW) flight-control system and other advanced-technology features on its new 747-500X and -600X. The US manufacturer has also told its airline working group that, despite the move to FBW and other ...
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NTSB analyses 'sound' on TWA recorder
INVESTIGATORS ARE analysing a brief sound on the cockpit-voice-recorder (CVR) tape recovered from the wreckage of Trans World Airlines Flight 800, looking for clues as to why the Boeing 747-100 exploded soon after take-off from New York Kennedy on 17 July, killing all 230 on board. Initial ...
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Under oversight?
FIRST, THE FEDERAL Aviation Administration in the USA was the target: now it is the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK. Each has been accused of failing to maintain satisfactory oversight of airline maintenance operations. If they cannot satisfy the expectations of the travelling public and their legal representatives, are ...
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Industry opposes airline safety ranking
US AIRLINES ARE opposing a US Federal Aviation Administration proposal to rank airlines by safety. The concept is favoured by consumer groups and by some US lawmakers, who say that the US Transportation Department should go beyond ranking airline on-time performance only. The FAA is studying the issues ...
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British Midland fined
British Midland Airways has been fined £150,000 ($233,000) by a UK court after admitting "negligently endangering life", following an unprecedented criminal prosecution brought by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The case relates to an incident in February 1995, when one of the airline's Boeing 737-400s made an emergency ...
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Boeing to review 777 cabin pressure after diversion
BOEING IS AGAIN reviewing the design of the 777 cabin-pressurisation system, following the diversion of a United Airlines (UAL) aircraft to Gander, Newfoundland, while being flown on a transatlantic flight. The 777 suffered "a loss of pressure" rather than a sudden depressurisation, says the airline, which adds that ...