All articles by David Kaminski-Morrow – Page 190
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NewsTarom ATR 42 crew skipped checklist before Chisinau excursion
Romanian investigators have disclosed that the pilots of a Tarom ATR 42-500 did not perform the descent checklist before a landing incident at Chisinau in which the crew lost lateral control and the aircraft swerved off the runway. Investigation authority AIAS says the cockpit-voice recording revealed the omission, adding that ...
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NewsRolls-Royce to reinforce liquidity with £3bn rights and bond issue
Rolls-Royce has unveiled a proposal for a £2 billion rights issue, as well as a £1 billion bond offering, to recapitalise the company and underpin its balance sheet. The 10-for-three rights issue will feature up to 6.4 billion new shares, at a discounted price. Rolls-Royce has also agreed commitments for ...
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NewsFirst Il-114-300 commences engine tests ahead of maiden flight
Ground tests have commenced with the first modernised Ilyushin Il-114-300, ahead of initiation of the turboprop’s flight campaign. The twin-engined aircraft has undergone low-power runs of its Klimov TV7-117ST-01 powerplant, developed by United Engine Corporation. Russia’s United Aircraft says it carried out the runs at the Zhukovsky flight-test base of ...
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NewsSAA suspends operations as rescuers seek to preserve finances
South African Airways has suspended all airline operations while its rescuers assess options to obtain urgent funding for the embattled flag-carrier. While the government has been claiming continuous engagement with potential funding sources, SAA’s rescue practitioners have warned of dwindling reserves, and have been keeping creditors updated over the deteriorating ...
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NewsSwiss chief Kluhr to step down at year-end
Lufthansa Group carrier Swiss’s chief executive, Thomas Kluhr, is to resign from his post at the end of this year, having delayed his departure from March. Swiss states that Kluhr, who has headed the airline for nearly five years, has requested that the board “release him from his duties”, and ...
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NewsUS bill details certification and training upheaval in 737 Max’s wake
US legislators have unveiled a proposed overhaul of aircraft certification intended to reform and reinforce the process in the aftermath of the fatal accidents involving the Boeing 737 Max. The bipartisan bill has been submitted jointly by two Democrat and two Republican representatives, including chair of the House Committee on ...
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NewsTouchdown normal before Omni 767’s main-gear collapse
Romanian investigators have disclosed that the Boeing 767-300ER which suffered a landing-gear collapse at Bucharest Baneasa airport did not touch down abnormally before the accident. It had been inbound from Kabul on 28 August, and the ILS approach to runway 07 was stable, with checklists and call-outs performed as normal, ...
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NewsAerodynamic impact of engine damage surprised A380 incident crew
Such was the extent of damage to an Airbus A380’s engine after an uncontained failure over Greenland that its crew was forced to descend to a much lower cruising altitude than expected. The Air France aircraft, en route to Los Angeles on 30 September 2017, suffered the failure of its ...
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NewsDash 8-400 service update aims to stem cowl-door losses
Operators of De Havilland Aircraft Dash 8-400 turboprops are being urged to pay attention to a new maintenance task intended to avoid incidents of engine cowl doors separating from the aircraft on take-off. De Havilland Aircraft has taken over the production of the aircraft, which was formerly known as the ...
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NewsQatar Airways lands QR7.3bn state injection after heavy pre-crisis loss
Qatar Airways Group has turned in a pre-tax loss of QR6.96 billion ($1.9 billion) and a net loss of just over QR7 billion, for a financial year that concluded before the airline industry felt the broad impact of the coronavirus crisis. The Doha-based carrier says that, at the end of ...
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NewsConfusion surrounds engine 'failure' before Ukrainian An-26 training crash
Confusion has emerged as to whether the Ukrainian military Antonov An-26 which crashed near Kharkiv suffered an engine failure before the accident. Ukraine’s defence ministry indicates there was a problem with an engine sensor before the aircraft came down in darkness, at about 20:45 on 25 September. Defence minister Andriy ...
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NewsDreamlifter pilots did not cross-check navigation before wrong-airport landing
Seven years after the incident, US investigators have disclosed the awkward radio exchange which underlined that a Boeing ‘Dreamlifter’ crew had unintentionally landed at the wrong Wichita airport. Just over a minute after the pilots had landed at Colonel James Jabara airport, the local controller for McConnell air force base ...
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NewsSniffer dogs to detect coronavirus begin Helsinki airport trial
Research indicating that dogs are capable of detecting evidence of coronavirus infection is being tested in a practical sense at Helsinki-Vantaa airport. The University of Helsink has studied the use of dogs in coronavirus testing and a Finnish organisation called Wise Nose specialising in sniffer-dog training, has started large-scale work ...
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NewsA380 fan-hub disintegration traced to misunderstood ‘cold dwell’ fatigue
French investigators have traced the serious engine failure involving an Air France Airbus A380 over Greenland to a phenomenon known as ‘cold dwell’ fatigue, which had caused a failure in a fan hub slot which houses the root of the fan blade. The analysis by investigation authority BEA closes a ...
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NewsZeroAvia conducts pioneering flight with hydrogen-electric M350
Alternative-fuel innovation company ZeroAvia is claiming to have achieved the world’s first flight of a hydrogen-electric commercial passenger aircraft, with its retrofitted Piper M350. The aircraft – under previous registration N866LP – had already been used to conduct a commercial-scale battery-electric flight in June. But ZeroAvia says it also completed ...
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NewsEASA seeks alternative to FAA’s newly-adopted 777 fuel-tank order
Europe’s air safety authority is to seek further data to address a centre fuel tank ignition risk perceived by the US FAA on early Boeing 777s, but has opted against adopting the US regulator’s mitigation directive. Several foreign operators, among them British Airways and KLM, had objected to the FAA ...
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NewsBoeing intends software update to address 787 localiser capture failures
Boeing is developing updated software for 787s to correct an erroneous localiser mode behaviour during ILS approaches. The US FAA is advising operators of the three 787 variants to notify crews about potential failure by the autopilot flight-director system to capture the localiser, notably during intercept of the localiser at ...
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NewsGo-around airprox exposed risks of questionable Schiphol runway procedure
Dutch investigators have warned that Amsterdam Schiphol is approaching a limit in terms of the amount of traffic it can safety handle, owing to the complexity of the airport’s design. The Dutch Safety Board made the remark after concluding an inquiry into a serious airprox incident that occurred during simultaneous ...
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NewsConcerns emerge over new El Al investor’s ownership
Israeli flag-carrier El Al’s new ownership structure has already run into problems, just a week after the share offering which resulted in a change in major shareholder. The new investor, Kanfei Nesharim, took a 43% shareholding in El Al during the share offering on 16 September. It had declared at ...
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NewsCabin-swap freighters' flight-time limited to reduce fire risk
European safety regulators are intending to impose a 2,000h flight-time limit on passenger aircraft converted to transport freight, as part of a mitigation strategy to reduce the risk of catastrophic fire. The European Union Aviation Safety Agency has drawn up a proposed deviation from normal freighter certification requirements, in order ...