All Ops & safety articles – Page 1266
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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'Intranet in the sky' is planned
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Two European airlines are leading the drive to link aircraft on the ground and in the air with the airline's "intranet" information technology systems. Lufthansa charter affiliate Condor and Swissair plan demonstrations of systems to allow Internet-style exchanges of information with aircraft using low-power datalinks ...
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Space rescue
Tim Furniss/LONDON On 26 September, 92 days after being lost in deep space, the European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) began sending back images of the sun again. The spacecraft's remarkable rescue owes much of its success to the initial location work completed by the large radio ...
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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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MD-11 wreckage yields clues but not answers
David Learmount/LONDON Any remaining doubt about whether the crew of the stricken Swissair Boeing MD-11 was attempting a ditching has now been eliminated by examination of wreckage on the seabed. Investigators have found that the aircraft, when it hit the water at night off Nova Scotia, Canada, on 2 ...
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DHL standardises on A300B4 freighters for European services
Herman de Wulf/BRUSSELS DHL International is standardising on the Airbus A300B4 freighter for its European operations and says it will need more than the 14 aircraft it has already agreed to acquire. The European arm of DHL has its main hub in Brussels handling some 250t of freight a night. ...
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Marconi tests head-up display system for 737
Certification flight testing of Marconi's HUD2020 head-up display (HUD) system for the Boeing 737 began on 28 September with a 2h 35min test flight from Mojave, California. The HUD, mounted by Tracor Flight Systems in the flightdeck of a 737-200 "-worked well during the initial flight", says Marconi, which ...
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737 Directive
The US Federal Aviation Administration has given affected airlines 60 days to inspect boost pump wiring on Boeing 737s which have logged 20,000-30,000 flight hours. It also ordered installation of an extra layer of Teflon sleeving to protect the fuel pump wires. The order affects 737-100-500 series. The FAA estimates ...
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MD-82 overrun at Ulsan adds to Korean Air's catalogue of woe
Korean Air's (KAL) battered safety record suffered another blow on 30 September when a Boeing MD-82 landing in wet weather at Ulsan Airport overran the runway by 150m (470ft), less than two months after another major incident at Seoul involving a KAL Boeing 747-400. According to the airline, three ...
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FAA extends checks on ageing airliner fleet
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Federal Aviation Administration has disclosed a series of safety initiatives covering detailed inspection of wiring and other operating systems for older airliners. The phased safety project is similar to the agency's ageing aircraft inspection programme, which covers the structures of vintage commercial transports. ...
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Australia throws challenge to flailing Air Niugini
Brisbane-based Flight West Airlines has expanded plans for new services between northern Australia and Papua New Guinea (PNG), further challenging embattled Air Niugini on one of its prime revenue earning routes. The Australian regional carrier now plans to add two direct flights weekly between Cairns and PNG's second city, Lae, ...
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Southern Air ceases operations
Financially troubled US cargo carrier Southern Air Transport (SAT), which has been up for sale for some time, ceased operations on 25 September. The airline plans to liquidate assets as it contemplates filing for bankruptcy protection from creditors. The end came after first Fine Air Services, and then Kitty ...
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European Commission denied air negotiation rights
The European Commission (EC) has been denied the full mandate it sought to negotiate air services agreements with non-European Union (EU) member states after the transport ministers met in Luxembourg on 1 October. The EC will now take legal action in the European Court of First Instance at Luxembourg. ...