All Safety News – Page 1420
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US Safety Board sees need for post-Cali crash modifications
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that newly certificated long-haul commercial passenger aircraft should have an automatic system for retracting speed brakes if the pilots start an emergency climb. The system could have saved the American Airlines Boeing 757, which crashed ...
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Kiwi files for Chapter 11 as ValuJet resumes flights
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON Kiwi International Airlines has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, blaming rising debts and the fall-out from the ValuJet crash and the grounding of Kiwi aircraft. Ironically, the filing took place on 30 September, the day that ValuJet returned to the air and at ...
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Honeywell talks to Lockheed Martin about APALS involvement
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES HONEYWELL IS IN talks about becoming involved in Lockheed Martin's Autonomous Precision Approach and Landing System (APALS). The US avionics company confirms: "There have been talks, and we are certainly kicking it around." The discussions are led by Honeywell's Business and Aviation Systems ...
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NTSB proposes more 737 rudder system changes
Boeing will have to revise the design of 737 rudder control system components, develop a cockpit display showing rudder position, and establish service life limits for certain rudder control parts if several proposals under study by the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) are made compulsory. The aim is to ...
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'Mechanical problem' confused crew of crashed Aero Peru 757
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON A possible flight-instrument or air-data-computer problem is likely to be the initial focus of the investigation into the 2 October loss of an Aero Peru Boeing 757, which crashed into the Pacific Ocean killing all 70 people on board. Peruvian transport minister Elsa Carrera de Escalante ...
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Airbus puts on AIRS for human-factor reports
Airbus Industrie is to provide customers, free of charge, with the software and training to record and share information on human-factors (HF)-related incidents with the con- sortium's safety department. To be known as the Aircrew Incident Reporting System (AIRS), it will be the first such manufacturer-provided service. Four ...
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Airbus pushes on with new versions of A340
David Learmount/TOULOUSE Airbus Industrie is to challenge Boeing's 777-300 stretch with an enlarged, rewinged A340 which carries as many passengers and flies further, says the European consortium's A330/ A340 commercial programme manager David Pound. The European consortium is effectively launching the -500 and-600 variants of the ...
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You have control
Several recent airliner accident reports have identified problems with cockpit automation as principal or contributory causes of the accidents. Much of the conventional reaction (especially by pilots) to these incidents is of the "automation must be stopped" or "automation has gone too far" variety. That reaction, in human terms, is ...
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LucasVarity investment dispels doubts
Lucas Aerospace is to acquire the Boeing Georgia cargo handling systems operation, in a move, which appears to dispel speculation that the newly merged LucasVarity group would quit the aerospace sector. The acquisition will bring sales of around $90 million, taking the Lucas cargo-handling business above the $200 ...
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Recommendations for improved safety
THE HUMAN-FACTORS TEAM makes a large number of recommendations for action by the FAA and other agencies. There are eight main headings, but some basic demands, like the need for better information-exchange on incidents, is repeated in varying forms under several of them. The principle recommendations for each heading include: ...
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Hong Kong's CAA is independent
Sir - While acknowledging the past help and advice received over the years from the UK Civil Aviation Authority, I should like to make it absolutely clear that the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department is by no means an offshoot of the UK CAA as reported (Flight International, 11-17 September). ...
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Centralised ATM is on the cards for UK
David Learmount/LONDON THE UK CIVIL Aviation Authority is expected to decide by the end of the year whether to proceed with plans to build the Prestwick-based Scottish Air Traffic Control Centre (SCATCC). A review of the UK's two-centre air-traffic-management (ATM) policy by the CAA could result in the ...
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Boeing upgrades transonic tunnel
BOEING IS refurbishing its 52-year-old transonic windtunnel as part of efforts to reduce development times for new models. The upgrade comes as Boeing's product-development work approaches recently unprecedented levels. At the core of the windtunnel upgrade is a new drive system made by French manufacturer Cegelec. It includes ...
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Homing Harrier
McDonnell Douglas (MDC) has made the first successful flight tests of an advanced navigation software module which allows AV-8B Harrier pilots to make precision approaches to restricted landing areas in bad visibility. The self-contained approach system uses the aircraft's existing navigation systems to calculate position and velocity precisely, relative to ...
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India's carriers continue expansion
SEVERAL OF India's private carriers are moving forward with expansion plans, and acquiring additional aircraft to meet expected growth. Sahara India Airlines is to lease an additional two Boeing 737-300s from November and has resubmitted its application to the Government to purchase five AI(R) ATR 42-500s. ...
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JAL returns to Thomson Training fold with 767 machine
JAPAN AIRLINES (JAL) has ordered a Boeing 767-300 full-flight simulator from Thomson Training & Simulation (TTS). The Level D machine will be delivered to JAL's Haneda Airport, Tokyo, training centre in late 1997, along with a desktop flight-management-system trainer produced by TTS. The sales, is welcome news for ...
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Thai orbit
Orbit Flight Training has reached an agreement to operate the new Aero International (Regional) and Thai Airways International's ATR simulator training centre in Bangkok, Thailand. The centre is scheduled to open at the end of 1996 equipped with a single ATR 42/72 full flight simulator, supplied by Orbit's parent, Thomson ...
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FSI gets UK approval
FLIGHTSAFETY International's (FSI) Vero Beach, Florida-based Flight Academy has received UK Civil Aviation Authority approval of its fully integrated pilot-training programme based on Civil Aviation Publication (CAP) 509. The move allows FSI to expand its existing CAA-approval for training modules into an ab initio programme. UK flight schools ...
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Ansett report slams 'business before safety' attitude
AUSTRALIA'S Civil Aviation Authority has been accused of putting commercial considerations before airline safety in a Bureau of Air Safety Investigation (BASI) accident report. BASI has slammed "organisational factors" in Ansett Airlines and the (then) CAA in its report of an Ansett Boeing 747-300 landing accident at Sydney on 10 ...
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Lufthansa criticises 747-X design
Andrzej Jeziorski/HAMBURG LUFTHANSA operations chief executive Klaus Nittinger has criticised recent changes in Boeing's design proposals for its 747-500/600X. "The aircraft has changed so drastically [since November] that it has moved far away from what we would like to see," says Nittinger. Lufthansa was enthusiastic about ...