All Ops & safety articles – Page 1238
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News
Improving safety
Graham Warwick/MONTREAL Teams of International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) inspectors will move out early next year to begin mandatory safety oversight audits, opening a new chapter in the history of the United Nations agency. The programme of "regular, mandatory, systematic and harmonised safety audits" in all 185 member states was ...
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Virgin to grow single-aisle fleet
Günter Endres/LONDON Virgin Atlantic is to boost its Airbus A320 fleet in the next few months to accommodate the expansion of its European scheduled and charter flights. Initial expansion is expected later this year, with the opening of the London Heathrow-Moscow service, followed by the start of the new ...
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FAA performs a U-turn on non-US pilot-training rules
David Learmount/LONDON The US Federal Aviation Administration has performed a dramatic policy U-turn, allowing non-US schools to train pilots for an FAA licence. The policy change was prompted by the fear of an imminent ruling by the European Joint Aviation Authorities, which would curtail the use of US pilot ...
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JetProp converted Malibu gets US go-ahead
Pilots no longer have to wait until 2000 to fly a turboprop-powered Piper Malibu. Customers with an aircraft and $589,000 to spare can now have the piston single converted to a Pratt &Whitney Canada PT6A-34 engine by JetProp. The Spokane, Washington-based company is owned by the same person who is ...
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Russia and USA sign to commit to safety
Russia and the USA have signed two agreements aimed at improving aviation safety relations between the two countries. The deals were signed last month by US State Secretary Madeleine Albright and her Russian counterpart, Yevgeni Primakov (who has subsequently become prime minister). The main part of the first ...
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PAL seeks foreign capital as resumption nears
Philippine Airlines (PAL) is due to resume skeleton international flights from 15 October, following the restart of domestic services with a much reduced fleet of aircraft. It is now seeking to attract new foreign investors, with efforts focused on Cathay Pacific Airways and Northwest Airlines. International operations will begin ...
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Airbus/Boeing poser faces Air France
Julian Moxon/PARIS Air France is considering the purchase of an initial 15 Airbus A330-200s or Boeing 767-300ER/400ERs to satisfy part of its future long-haul requirement and has asked General Electric, Rolls-Royce and Pratt & Whitney to come up with offers for both types. Selection is being held up ...
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EC and Italy reach last-gasp airports agreement
The European Commission and the Italian Government have reached a last-minute agreement on a traffic distribution system between Milan's two airports at Linate and Malpensa, where a new hub is to open on 25 October. The deal, agreed in principle, followed a day of intense negotiations on 8 October ...
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Rutan to launch Boomerang after production agreement
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Burt Rutan's unconventional, asymmetric piston twin, the Boomerang, is set to enter production. Oregon-based Morrow Aircraft has reached an agreement with Rutan under which the one-off design could be certificated within three years - provided that sufficient financing is secured. Under the agreement, Rutan's Scaled ...
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Southern African airlines struggle to survive as profits plunge
By Hilka Birns/CAPE TOWN Dangerously low profit margins are threatening the future of airlines in Southern Africa as low yields from domestic services and excessive levies imposed by government-owned monopolies take their toll, according to the Airline Association of Southern Africa (AASA). Airlines in the region are reporting ...
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GE90-powered Continental 777 hits ETOPS proving flight hitch
This new General Electric GE90-powered Continental Airlines Boeing 777 had to carry out a precautionary diversion following a starboard engine low oil-quantity alert during a transpacific extended range twin engine operations (ETOPS) proving flight for the airline. The aircraft, en route on a nonstop New York-Tokyo flight on 7 October, ...
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Boeing targets year end for assessment of 747 stretch
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES Boeing expects to complete windtunnel tests of a stretched, 500-seater 747 by the end of the year and, pending the successful conclusion of business case studies and sufficient customer commitments, says it could launch the aircraft by mid-1999. Boeing, which celebrated 30 years of 747 assembly earlier ...
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Sabena turbine failure
A Sabena Boeing 737-200 with 104 people on board suffered an uncontained starboard engine failure just after take off from Brussels Zaventem for Lisbon, Portugal, on 26 September. Upwind from runway 25R, engine parts from the Pratt & Whitney JT8D-15 rained on the village of Diegem, damaging cars and houses. ...
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Marketplace
-Pan American has added a fourth Boeing 727-200 to its fleet to expand charter operations. The airline is now examining the possibility of resuming scheduled operations next year. -Qantas has found a buyer for its fleet of four 16/17-year-old Airbus A300B4s - the A300 freighter leasing company Pinnacle Air Cargo ...
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ICAO safety rules meet
Regular compulsory audits by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) of individual states' aviation safety oversight programmes were approved on 2 October at the ICAO Assembly in Montreal, Canada. The ruling becomes effective on 1 January, 1999. Members agreed the audits should not be used for purposes other than safety, ...
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Growing pains
Emma Kelly/LONDONThe in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry is growing up. But it has had to. The IFE industry today is showing the first signs of realism and credibility - much improved characteristics than the over-promises and disappointments that have plagued the industry in recent years. After years of considerable effort, interactive ...
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Garuda system reliability queried
Paul Lewis/SINGAPORE A US lawsuit filed against Sundstrand has called into question the reliability and effectiveness of the company's Mk2 ground proximity warning system (GPWS), following the fatal crash of a Garuda Indonesia Airbus A300B4 in Sumatra a year ago. The Chicago-based Nolan Law Group, representing the family ...
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Proteus market predicted to fly
Guy Norris/MOJAVE Wyman-Gordon is predicting an estimated market for up to 1,000 of the unconventional Proteus high-altitude, long operation (HALO) aircraft being built by its subsidiary Scaled Composites. The US investment company hopes to begin proof-of-concept trials as early as 2000. The prediction, from Wyman-Gordon's chairman and chief ...
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Facing the future
Emma Kelly/LONDON The in-flight entertainment (IFE) industry has come in for sharp criticism over the last few years, with some well-publicised interactive IFE failures giving it a bad name. To limit the chances of this happening in the future, the World Airline Entertainment Association (WAEA) - the IFE industry ...
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FAA free flight programme to retain existing ground navaids
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC A new airspace system modernisation plan drawn up by the US Federal Aviation Administration will retain at least one-third of the existing ground-based navigation and landing aids beyond 2015. The plan, expected to be released within a month, also foresees the introduction of automatic dependent ...