All Ops & safety articles – Page 1336
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News
NTSB reveals Comair Brasilia crash clues
Starboard engine overspeed appears to have been the triggering factor for the 9 January Comair Embraer EMB-120 Brasilia (N265CA) crash in which all 26 passengers and three crew died, according to US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators. The twin-turboprop, which was operating a Delta Connection flight to ...
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UK ignores EC warning on BA
The UK Government has brushed aside warnings from the European Commission (EC) that it could be taken to court if it approves the proposed British Airways alliance with American Airlines, without imposing tougher conditions to ensure transatlantic competition. The spat has also exposed more fundamental legal questions over the extent ...
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Polar Logistics serves Antarctica with Hercules
Polar Logistics has started direct passenger and cargo flights between Cape Town, South Africa and Queen Maud Land, Antarctica, using a Lockheed Martin L-100-30 Hercules leased from Southern Air Transport. The 4,230km (2,300nm) flight takes around nine hours, carrying a 6.8t payload. Polar, which specialises in "high-latitude" operations, initially plans ...
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Japanese airlines finalise low-cost plans
Japan Air System (JAS) and Japan Airlines (JAL) are planning to incorporate new low-cost subsidiary carriers shortly, in the face of growing domestic liberalisation and the entry of new competing start-up airlines. JAS also announced that its new subsidiary operation, Harlequin Air, was to have been established on ...
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Airbus withdraws USAir's future delivery positions
Airbus Industrie has withdrawn all of USAir's 1998 and 1999 firm delivery positions, as well as support for a planned aircraft lease, because the US air carrier "-has not demonstrated that it will be able to affirm its Airbus aircraft purchase". USAir has told its employees that it ...
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Thai's R-R Trent woes continue on 777
Thai Airways International has removed a second Rolls-Royce Trent 800 engine from one of its Boeing 777 aircraft in two months, after metal debris was again found on the magnetic chip-detector (MCD). The second unscheduled removal by Thai of a Trent 800 occurred on 25 December, 1996, following ...
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PATS replaces VIP 737 generating canisters
PATS has received US Federal Aviation Administration certification for a central, high-pressure oxygen system to replace oxygen-generating canisters in Boeing 737s. The first system has been installed in a 737 operated by ITT as a 50-passenger transport for two sports teams. Columbia, Maryland-based PATS says the system is ...
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FAA demands total 737 rudder-retrofit programme
The US Federal Aviation Administration is to order airlines to retrofit four newly developed rudder-system components in 2,800 Boeing 737s. US Vice President Al Gore revealed the move in a speech on commercial aviation security and safety. The updated components will be incorporated in new-build 737-300, -400 and -500 series ...
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Heathrow responds to Fokker 50 delay
Sir- In response to N Malle's letter (Flight International, 8-14 January, P37), about the landing of a damaged Fokker 50 at Heathrow in December, I would like to make the following points. Landing-gear failure was apparent on final approach. By the time the aircraft had been manoeuvred in ...
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UK CAA insists on stick-shaker for Falcon 2000
Dassault has delivered the first UK-registered Falcon 2000 business jet, but has been forced to equip the aircraft with a "stick-shaker" stall-warning device to meet the UK Civil Aviation Authority's "additional requirements for import". These come despite the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) declaring that such a device is unnecessary. ...
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737 rudder procedures
An emergency airworthiness directive requires US Boeing 737 operators to adopt new procedures to improve pilots' control following sudden uncommanded rudder movements. The new procedures, to be included in the 737 flight manual, also outline actions to deal with a jammed or restricted rudder. Pilots are advised to lower the ...
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Freight fright
THE AIRLINE-ACCIDENT statistics for 1996 (P31) suggest that there is a serious safety problem in the air-freight market. Over one-third of all fatal airliner accidents last year were to non-passenger aircraft: they caused the deaths of 158 aircrew and other occupants, and more than 350 further deaths of innocent third ...
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Polynesian Otter crash
A Polynesian Airlines de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter crashed into a hill in stormy weather on its initial approach to Apia, Western Samoa, on 8 January, killing three of the five people on board. According to the carrier's managing director Richard Gates the aircraft, inbound from Pago Pago, American Samoa, ...
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FAA softens order on Lycoming crankshaft
A PROPOSED airworthiness directive(AD) requiring repetitive inspection, and possible replacement, of crankshafts in certain Textron Lycoming engines has been modified to reduce its potentially serious impact on operators. The AD was prompted by failures of hollow-end crankshafts caused by corrosion-induced cracking. The original notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) ...
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Sabena revives study of off-shore contracts
Sabena has confirmed that it has resurrected cost-saving plans to employ flying personnel on out-of-country contracts. The proposal, which is still under study, would see pilots and cabin crew continue to be based in Brussels, but paid in Switzerland, probably via Sabena's partner Swissair, with the transaction made through a ...
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DC-XA crash cause
An unconnected hose led to the destruction of the Clipper Graham DC-XA technology-demonstrator vehicle at White Sands, New Mexico, on 31 July, 1996. A helium pneumatic-system brake line on one of the landing gears was unconnected, preventing pressurisation of the brake mechanism and extension of the gear. Source: ...
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European research group will study new blade-tip coatings
A consortium of nine European companies and research centres has launched a four-year project to develop advanced coatings for aero-engine turbine blade-tips. The work is aimed at achieving reduced tip-clearances, to improve engine performance without causing excessive wear in the blades. "When the blade tip rubs against the ...
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The boom returns for airliner orders
Airbus, Boeing and McDonnell Douglas (MDC)saw jet-airliner orders climb comfortably above the 1,000 mark in 1996, giving the big three aircraft builders their best year since the bonanza of the late 1980s. Production rates are also on the rise and due to hit record levels within the next two to ...
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SIA's Indian airline investment clears another major hurdle
Singapore Airlines' (SIA) long-running plan to establish a new domestic Indian airline in partnership with the TATA Group has cleared one major hurdle, with approval from India's Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB). The deal could still be derailed by the country's civil-aviation ministry, however, which plans to ban foreign equity ...
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FAA orders FJ44 turbine solution
The US Federal Aviation Administration is requiring immediate inspection and replacement of high-pressure turbine disks used in Williams Rolls-Royce FJ44 turbofans which have twice failed on Cessna CitationJets. The airworthiness directive (AD) affects the early-model FJ44-1A turbofan engines which power some CitationJets. The Directive orders immediate and recurring ...