All Ops & safety articles – Page 1226
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News
Marketplace
-US passenger/cargo charter airline Omni Air International has taken delivery of a McDonnell Douglas (MDC) DC-10-30 from Lufthansa, which is operated by charter subsidiary Condor. The aircraft will join Omni's fleet of two DC-10-10s and one -30, and a second ex-Condor DC-10-30 will arrive in June. -Boeing won orders from ...
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EVA opts out of plans for a stake in Myanmar
Taiwan-based EVA Airways has dropped plans to buy a 50% stake in Myanmar Airways International (MAI). Talks ran aground in December, according to EVA deputy senior vice-president Nieh Kuo Wei. "We studied the market and we did want to have co-operation with Myanmar, but after careful study, we still ...
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Swisscargo drops spin-off proposal
Swissair's cargo division, Swisscargo, has ditched proposals to spin off its own freight airline and will instead expand its existing strategy of wet-lease and block space agreements. The tentative plan to set up the cargo airline was studied in 1997, when an initial three of five Boeing 747-300 passenger ...
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Prosecutors drop Nagoya criminal proceedings
Japanese public prosecutors have dropped efforts to indict China Airlines (CAL)and Airbus Industrie over an A300 crash at Nagoya, Japan, in 1994, which claimed 264 lives out of 272 on board, according to Airbus representatives in Japan. Three damages suits filed against both the airline and the manufacturer by ...
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Command decisions
Julian Moxon/PARIS Any doubts about the safety and cost effectiveness of fly-by-wire (FBW) flight control systems on civil aircraft were long ago dispelled with the success of Airbus Industrie's single-aisle A320 and, later, the European consortium's twin-aisle models. The justifications used by Airbus for introducing FBW were several, ...
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Pop goes the boom
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON On the face of it, the Airbus and Boeing orderbooks have so far escaped much of the Asian gloom, with a third successive year of solid sales and production records. Order deferrals, however, have already begun, and airliner salesmen are bracing themselves for a tougher time ahead ...
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Government bank plans CAL bid
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE The Taiwanese Government-owned China Development Bank (CDB)has declared an interest in buying a 35.5% stake in China Airlines (CAL), days after Singapore Airlines (SIA) dropped its bid. CDB is an investment arm of Taiwan's ruling Nationalist Party and owns about 2% of CAL together with another ...
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Surat Thani crash brings Thai aviation reform a step closer
Thai transport minister Suthep Thaugsuban has promised to reform the country's aviation bodies following the fatal crash of a Thai Airways International Airbus A310 at Surat Thani 11 December. Suthep, whose sister was among the 101 dead out of 146 people on board, says the results of the crash ...
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Safest approaches are those flown...
Safest approaches are those flown at 3¼ angle- David Lonsdale's letter (Flight International, 23 December, 1998-5 January, 1999, P48) makes the very valid point that the safest approaches flown in a swept-wing transport are those that are close to a 3¼ angle, and the reply from SAS (Flight International, 6-12 ...
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News
Airports
-The French minister of transport has confirmed his intention to restrict flights from Paris' second airport, Orly, to those with a range of less than 5,000km (2,700nm). The move, which is expected to take effect in 2001, means that a few slots (2.5% of the total) will be released for ...
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Management actions
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Flight management systems (FMS) are no longer luxury items found only on large airliners, but essential equipment on commercial aircraft of all sizes and ages. The reason is the navigation accuracy now possible and the cost benefits available to airlines in the form of fuel and ...
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737 rudder safety checks planned
The US Federal Aviation Administration plans to issue an airworthiness directive (AD) requiring mandatory inspections for potential valve cracks in some Boeing 737 rudder power control units (PCUs). The FAA has also issued a directive covering the Rolls-Royce Allison AE3007 affecting Embraer RJ-145s and Cessna Citation X business jets. ...
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SAS opts for A330/A340s but order awaits cost cuts to bite
Andrew Doyle/MUNICH SAS has selected the Airbus A330/A340 family for its planned long-haul fleet renewal but is holding off signing a firm order until its internal cost cutting targets have been met. The airline has decided to reject Boeing's offer of 10 Boeing 777-200ERs in favour of a ...
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Lancair investigates Columbia 300 crash
Lancair and the US National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the loss of the first Columbia 300 four-seater after it crashed into the Columbia River close to Portland International Airport, Oregon, on 8 January. Lancair company pilot Hans Oesch and a passenger are missing, believed dead, following the discovery ...
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Airbus forecasts lower sales for 1999 as demand dwindles
Julian Moxon/PARIS Airbus Industrie expects to achieve "significantly lower" sales during 1999, following its record breaking year of orders and deliveries, but insists it will continue the near-50% market share achieved in 1998 in all areas where it competes with Boeing. Commercial vice-president John Leahy declines to predict the ...
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FAA sends US 727F operators $192 million bill
The US Federal Aviation Administration has finalised airworthiness directives (AD) which impose severe payload limits on Boeing 727s that were converted into freighters by third party maintenance organisations. The restrictions remain in effect until floor structures on 270 US-registered 727Fs are modified at an estimated cost of $192 million, ...
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US KC-135 crash
A US Air National Guard Boeing KC-135 tanker crashed near Geilenkirchen, Germany, on 13 January, killing all four crew members. The aircraft was returning to base after refuelling a NATO Boeing E-3 and had made a go-around. The aircraft, with 18,000 litres (4,750USgal) of fuel, exploded on impact and burned ...
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Dynamic explorers
Tim Furniss/LONDON Three small NASA spacecraft will explore the earth's dynamic systems early in the new millennium. One of the satellites, called Volcanic Ash Mission (Volcam), will demonstrate the operational and scientific applications of monitoring volcanic clouds and small atmospheric particles, known as aerosols, from a geostationary orbit. Volcanic clouds ...
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Software problems delay WAAS implementation
The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has delayed initial fielding of the Raytheon Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) by at least 14 months because of software development problems. The WAAS was to have entered service in July 1999, but the FAA says this has been pushed back to September ...