All Ops & safety articles – Page 1162
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News
BAE approves regional launch
Emma Kelly/LONDON BAE Systems hopes to announce the launch airline for its RJX regional jet family in the next three weeks following the formal launch of the Avro RJ derivative on 21 March. Peter Connolly, BAE Systems senior vice-president for sales and marketing, says an order for the ...
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EC holds up EADS approval over inadequate documents
Alan George/LONDON The European Commission's (EC) competition authorities have extended by a month their first-phase investigation of the proposed merger of DaimlerChrysler Aerospace, Aerospatiale Matra and CASA to form the European Aeronautic, Defense and Space (EADS) company. Brussels acted after some documents from EADS were found to be deficient. ...
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WAAS guides FAA to new approach
The US Federal Aviation Administration plans new categories of approach guidance based on the expected performance of the wide area augmentation system (WAAS). Details revealed at the WAAS users' summit in mid-March suggest the new levels will provide increased operational benefit earlier than expected. The FAA told users that ...
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US Airways gets set to form international partnership
Ramon Lopez/TOULOUSE US Airways will become a partner in an international airline alliance in the next few months, says chairman Stephen Wolf. At the same time, the airline is gearing up for long-haul expansion with the delivery of the first of up to 30 Airbus A330-300s. Until now, ...
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Traffic fall defeats Russian airlines' restructuring plan
Paul Duffy/MOSCOW New figures on the state of the Russian airline industry make sobering reading - although the improved performance of a handful of carriers, achieved in a harsh economic climate, suggests there may be grounds for cautious optimism. Russian passenger traffic fell 3.7% last year compared with 1998, ...
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Maintainers record mixed 1999 results
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Troubled US maintenance and parts specialist Aviation Sales will take a charge of $72 million against yet-to-be-announced 1999 results, relating to a reduction in the value of inventory in its parts redistribution operations, plus four Airbus A300s which it is trying to sell or lease. The ...
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Investigators throw light on MD-11 crash cause
Canadian accident investigators are again sifting the wreckage of the Swissair Boeing MD-11 Flight No SR111 to check whether cockpit map reading lights could have been the ignition source for the fire which brought down the aircraft, flying from New York to Geneva off Nova Scotia in September 1998. ...
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People
Gareth Kirkwood, managing director (MD) of British Airways subsidiary Brymon Airways, has been appointed MD of British Airways World Cargo. Northrop Grumman's Electronic Sensors and Systems sector has appointed four new vice-presidents (VPs): Donald Wilhelm - airspace management systems, George Perkins - space systems, James Armitage - engineering, Baltimore operations ...
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Mergers
Lockheed Martin Global Telecommunications expects to complete its merger with Comsat early in the third quarter, after the US Congress approved satellite communications reform legislation that clears the way for the privatisation of the Intelsat and Inmarsat satellite networks. The legislation allows US customers to bypass Comsat, which controls access ...
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Slow service take-up hits Globalstar/Iridium
Loral Space and Communications is considering selling all or part of its 45% stake in the Globalstar worldwide mobile-communications satellite system following slower than expected sales of the telephone service. Meanwhile, Iridium prime investor Motorola has notified customers of its worldwide satellite mobile-telephone and paging services that it will ...
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Frequency wars
At last, the aviation industry has woken up to the fact that it no longer has a birthright to all of the radio frequencies it had assumed belonged to it forever. Radio frequencies are valuable commodities, especially to mobile satellite service (MSS) companies, keen to expand their services and profits ...
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Runway incursion technology delayed
New technology to reduce runway incursion incidents in the USA - listed by the Federal Aviation Administration as among the most serious risks to air travellers - will be delayed by two years because of continued technical problems, says the FAA. Northrop Grumman's Airport Movement Area Safety System (AMASS) ...
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NASA reacts to study criticisms
Tim Furniss/LONDON NASA has promised swift action following criticism in three separate reports of the space agency's Space Shuttle and "faster, better, cheaper" spacecraft programmes. The Space Shuttle Assessment Team has criticised NASA for cutting staff at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC), saying that it has eroded safety - ...
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Magnetosphere deal for UK company
The UK's Surrey Satellite Technology (SSTL) has won a $120,000, 100-day, Magnetosphere Multiscale Mission (MMS) study contract to investigate the range of suitable concepts for a five-spacecraft mission to study the Earth's magnetosphere. Planned for launch in 2005, the five-spacecraft MMS fleet will involve formation flying and two lunar ...
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USA calls in ICAO to referee European hushkit dispute
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC David Learmount/LONDON The Clinton Administration has asked the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to arbitrate in its row with the European Union (EU) over plans to limit the number of hushkitted aircraft operating in Europe after the 2002 introduction of a ban on non-Stage III compliant aircraft. ...
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Aviation industry unites on frequency protection issue
Emma Kelly/LONDON The aviation industry has developed a unanimous position on the protection of its radio frequencies, says John White, director of the Infrastructure Support Group at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). The decision precedes May's International Telecommunication Union World Radiocommunication Conference (WRC). IATA and the International Civil ...
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Philippines suspends Taiwan flights again
The Philippines has again suspended all flights to Taiwan, saying that an interim accord reached in January was not agreeable to both sides. China Airlines (CAL) and EVA Air halted all Philippines flights from 15 March, re-routing passengers through Hong Kong, or issuing refunds. Flights between the two countries ...
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Argentina suspends law to block LanChile advance
Guy Norris/LONDON The Argentinian Government has suspended for six months a 1994 law allowing foreign ownership and control of Argentinian carriers. The move is apparently aimed at blocking a takeover of ailing Aerolineas Argentinas by LanChile, which had expressed an interest in taking a share in the Buenos Aires-based ...
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Nav Canada aims for North Atlantic ADS datalink trials
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC Nav Canada hopes to begin full operational trials with automatic dependence surveillance (ADS) over the North Atlantic in early May, followed by controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC), with the upgrade of its Gander Automated Air Traffic Control System. "We are targeting being operational on 7 May. ...
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MD-80s avoid disaster at Oslo
David Learmount/LONDON Three Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) Boeing MD-80s came close to a multiple collision at Oslo Gardemoen Airport on 8 March, endangering the lives of over 300 passengers and crew. The incident is being investigated by the airline and the aviation authorities, according to SAS' chief pilot for the ...