All Ops & safety articles – Page 1191
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News
FAA satellite programme investigated
The US General Accounting Office (GAO) has launched a Congressionally requested investigation into the US Federal Aviation Administration's satellite navigation programme following concerns about the agency's plans to move from a ground-based to a satellite-based navigation system. The GAO expects to report next spring. The study follows an investigation ...
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Raytheon output rise may not be enough
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Raytheon Aircraft has increased planned production of its new Premier I and Hawker Horizon business jets to meet demand, but faces challenges meeting the programmes' schedules. Production of the entry-level Premier I will be increased by 25% to 60 a year, while production of the ...
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Police label SilkAir investigation as 'suicide cum murder'
The Singapore Police Force has classified its investigation into the crash of the SilkAir Boeing 737-300 in Sumatra on 19 December 1997 as "suicide cum murder". The police stress that the label has been adopted "solely to assist us in our investigation. It is not an indication of our ...
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USA limits chemical tank numbers
The US Department of Transportation has put into force new restrictions on the transport of chemical oxidisers and compressed oxygen aboard commercial air transports. The regulations bar carriage of chemical oxidisers in an inaccessible aircraft cargo compartment that does not have a fire or smoke detection and fire suppression ...
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FAA selects Arinc to develop datalink
ARINC has been awarded a five-year contract by the US Federal Aviation Administration to support the development and initial operational capability of controller-pilot datalink communications (CPDLC) in the US national airspace system (NAS). The aeronautical communications specialist will develop a prototype CPDLC system in conjunction with the FAA's William ...
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Engine under Buenos Aires crash spotlight
David Learmount/LONDON Initial information on the Argentine Boeing 737-200 fatal accident on 31 August indicates that take-off was abandoned following a mechanical failure in the No 1 engine. Witness and survivor statements supporting this view have yet to be confirmed by official sources, although the captain survived and the ...
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Airbus flies towards FANS approval
Airbus is expecting certification of its FANS-A (future air navigation system) avionics next spring following extensive in-flight trials of the system and the first tests in an operational environment. The system, developed for the A330/A340, supports satellite communications (satcoms), datalink communications and automatic dependent surveillance (ADS). The first operational trial ...
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Atlas restart scheduled after engine is cleared
Lockheed Martin is to resume Atlas launches on 10 September, but the maiden flight of its Atlas III booster has been pushed back into 2000. Atlas launches were halted in May following the loss of Boeing's first Delta III, caused by the failure of a Pratt & Whitney RL10 ...
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MD-11 wiring to be tested for arcing
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSBC) is devising tests to find out whether cockpit ceiling wiring from the crashed Swissair Boeing MD-11 suffered from electrical arcing before or after it was exposed to fire. "Tests are under way to assess the significance of arcing found on 14 segments ...
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Stormy weather
Carole Shifrin WASHINGTON DC Air traffic delays are not unique to Europe. The USA is also being forced to look hard at upgrading services After some fierce attacks by several top airline officials on the Federal Aviation Administration's running of the US air traffic control system, airline and FAA ...
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Routes
SriLankan/MAS codeshare - SriLankan Airlines, formerly Air Lanka, has agreed to share codes with Malaysia Airlines on flights between Colombo and Kuala Lumpur. Under the agreement, MAS is adding its code to thrice-weekly services being operated by the Colombo-based carrier. JAS and Northwest in Japan - Japan Air System ...
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Reading the signs
Major carriers appear to be signalling their intent to rein back on excess capacity. Chris Tarry at Commerzbank looks at the signs and the possible influence of alliances in the equation. It does not take a degree in rocket science to realise just how testing this year has already been ...
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Profits on a plateau
Kevin O'Toole In the final analysis, the airline industry's financial results for 1998 were once again a mix of the encouraging and the depressingly familiar. Overall profitability came out at almost identical levels to the year before. The industry should perhaps take heart from that fact, given the dire ...
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Passenger seat restraint
Kevin O'Toole Continuing fall-out from Asia's economic crisis reverberated around markets last year as is clear from the latest passenger airline rankings. But it is concerns over falling yields rather than traffic that are now taking centre stage. Last year posed something of a test of resolve for airline ...
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Management teams
Carriers in need of change are looking to new boardroom teams for results. Analysis is by Michael Bell, who leads the Global Aviation Practice for senior-executive search firm Spencer Stuart The past few months have brought into focus a new form of leadership at troubled carriers around the world: management ...
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Proton scheduled for launch in September
The first Proton launch since the failure of a new Proton M on 5 July is scheduled for 6 September, when two Russian Yamal communications satellites will be carried into space by a Proton K on a domestic launch. International Launch Services (ILS), meanwhile, has established an independent Failure ...
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SAirGroup the latest to suffer slump
SAirGroup is blaming a 29% fall in first-half operating profits on an "accelerating deterioration in yields" in its airline operations, coupled with air traffic control (ATC) restrictions caused in part by the Kosovo conflict. It has become the latest major European airline group to report a slump in profits, ...
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Raising the internet stakes
Dennis Blank ORLANDO The explosion of online travel booking in the USA - stimulated by offerings of bargain basement ticket fares - is attracting the wrath of travel agents. But US major carriers cannot ignore this rapidly growing marketplace. This year, the customary late summer round of airfare bargains across ...
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Punctuality hits new lows
When the Association of European Airlines (AEA) issued its punctuality report for the first quarter of the year, it warned that delays in 1999 were shaping up to be worse even than the infamous summer of 1989 when European delays last hit a peak. The prediction was on target. ...
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Mind games
Twenty months into one of the most controversial accident investigations of the decade, SilkAir has told the world that a pilot who apparently intended to kill himself and 103 others was "by the best standards of the industry-fit to fly". To put it charitably, this demonstrates a disturbing readiness ...