All Safety News – Page 1462
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European Commission tries to step up open-skies pace schedule
Julian Moxon/PARIS THE EUROPEAN Commission (EC) will adopt its mandate for open-skies deals with the USA by the end of April, according to a senior Transport Directorate source. "We're not going for protection, or restrictive agreements," says the EC. "These are very liberal open-skies proposals." The ...
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Aer Lingus is back in the black
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON AER LINGUS IS BACK making profits after the crises of the past two years, which executive chairman Bernie Cahill admits brought the Irish flag-carrier close to collapse. The group has had to fight its way back from "the very edge of a precipice", says ...
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Throttles and pilots are key Tarom issues
David Learmount/LONDON THE PRIMARY CAUSE of the Tarom Airbus A310-300 crash at Bucharest appears to have been a throttle lever which became mechanically jammed at the full-power position while the autothrottle was engaged, according to the official interim report. All 49 passengers and 11 crew died ...
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Clinton presents ATC reshuffle plan
THE US CLINTON Administration has delivered to Congress a reorganisation plan which would shrink the Federal Aviation Administration through the creation of a quasi-governmental corporation responsible for air traffic control (ATC). About 40,000 FAA workers would transfer to the new US Air Traffic Services Corporation. The FAA would ...
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Airbus develops infra-red water detector
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE has developed a new infrared thermographic-inspection technique for detecting water ingress in composite-sandwich structures. The manufacturer says, that the procedure is proving so successful that it has been, recommended for use by all operators of Airbus aircraft. Infrared thermography is based on the principle that ...
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Rotary FANS
It is one of the ironies of the future air-navigation system (FANS) that, although it is aimed primarily at airline operations, the general-aviation (GA) community is so far its major user. One FANS element - satellite navigation - is already commonplace in fixed-wing GA in the form of the global-positioning ...
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Rivals capitalise on Air Inter strike woe
AIRLINES, WHICH have been taking advantage of liberalisation, to compete with French domestic carrier Air Inter at Paris Orly Airport, are reaping the benefits of continuing strikes at the Air France subsidiary. Since January, AOM and Air Liberte have been operating flights to Marseilles and Toulouse respectively - ...
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Boeing drives 777 ahead but loses Gulf Air orders
BOEING IS continuing its intensive effort to push the 777 into service on time after confirming that it has lost Gulf Air's order for six aircraft, with six options. The Bahrain-based carrier dropped its commitment to the General Electric GE90-powered aircraft after deciding that it would end ...
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FAA breaks new ground with Y-12 approval
THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration has issued its first type-certificate for an aircraft designed and produced in China - the Harbin Y-12 IV. Its Part 23 approval of the twin-turboprop airliner forms part of a larger programme to bring the Civil Aviation Administration of China's (CAAC) airworthiness regulations ...
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DHC-6 probe fails to satisfy pilots' fears over Twin Otter
NORWEGIAN PILOTS are to vote on whether to reject formally the findings of the investigation into the fatal loss of a de Havilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter. A second report, this time by Dutch investigators, has failed to persuade UK metallurgical specialists whose earlier evidence caused the Norwegian ...
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Investigators say bomb theory is unproven in Romanian A310 crash accident
THE ROMANIAN accident-investigation commission is backtracking on early statements by some of its individual members that the crash of a TAROM Romanian Airlines Airbus Industrie A310 on 31 March was likely to have been caused by an onboard explosion. An official statement now says that the commission "...is ...
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Canada joins USA in dropping MLS
THE CANADIAN Government is to negotiate the termination of its microwave-landing system (MLS) with prime contractor Micronav International. Transport minister Douglas Young says that the nation is committing itself to continued use of the instrument-landing system (ILS) for as long as possible and then plans to switch to ...
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Bad Reviews
THE CURRENT CASE in Norway concerning the 1990 crash of a Wideroe Flyveselskap DHC-6 Twin Otter is the latest in a long line of challenges to accident reports. In this case, as in the others, the controversy stems more from the procedures for making a challenge than from the scientific ...
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Switzerland to run GPS approach trial
SWISS REGIONAL airline Crossair and Swisscontrol plan a two-phase evaluation of global-positioning-system (GPS) landing systems, beginning in late 1995. The programme, to be completed by early 1996, could result in approval of one of the first GPS precision-approaches in Europe. In the first phase, two Crossair Saab 2000s ...
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Protests likely over WAAS decision
THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration has eliminated all but one of the four competitors for the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) and begun negotiations to award the $500 million contract to a team led by Wilcox Electric. The WAAS will increase the integrity, availability and accuracy of the ...
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NTSB spreads blame in USAir DC-9 crash report
THE US NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) says that the flight-deck crew and air-traffic controllers share the responsibility for the wind shear-induced crash of a USAir McDonnell Douglas DC-9 in 1994. Investigators say that the DC-9-31 pilots flew directly into a severe storm cell at Charlotte, North Carolina, ...
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Orenda to certificate piston engine for King Air 90
HAWKER SIDDELEY Canada's Orenda division is to seek certification of the new Orenda Series piston engine on the Raytheon Beech King Air 90 under an agreement with US modification centre Stevens Aviation. Toronto-based Orenda will supply two 450kW (600hp) OE-600A liquid-cooled, twin-turbo-charged, Vee-8 engines in July for ...
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Hughes offers Canada revised ATC schedule
HUGHES AIRCRAFT has submitted a re-work plan to Transport Canada which extends the time-scale for completion of the Canadian Automated Air Traffic System (CAATS) by almost two years, to 1998. Canadian progress payments to Hughes have meanwhile stopped, while the negotiations take place. Hughes says that the contract ...
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US airlines dispute timetable and costs for flight-data recorders
THE US AIRLINE Transport Association (ATA) says that a US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommendation to require more sophisticated flight-data recorders on older Part 121 passenger aircraft is too expensive and unattainable within the time-scale proposed. The NTSB says that each installation would cost between $20,000 and ...
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Eagle TCAS2
American Eagle is installing Rockwell-Collins TCAS traffic-alert and collision-avoidance systems across its fleet, exceeding the regulatory requirement for all ten- to 30-passenger aircraft to be equipped with the less-capable TCAS I by the end of 1995. It cites commonality with its larger TCAS II-equipped aircraft as the reason for its ...