All Ops & safety articles – Page 1374
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News
Unions up in arms over Air France Europe cuts
WAGE AND JOB CUTS designed to turn round Air France's heavily loss-making domestic operations have been roundly condemned by unions, which are due to meet the management on 22 May to discuss the latest survival plan. Air France chairman Christian Blanc, presenting details of the plan, played ...
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BA near to active-noise-control headset decision
BRITISH AIRWAYS is expected to place an order for 3,400 active-noise-control headsets for its pilots by the end of this month. Germany's Sennheiser and Bose of the USA are bidding for the contract, which could be worth over £1 million ($1.6 million). The UK airline decided to opt ...
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NTSB investigates oxygen canisters in crashed DC-9
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Karen Walker/ATLANTADavid Learmount/LONDON FOCUS ON WHAT caused the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas (MDC) DC-9-30 accident in Florida, USA, is concentrating on oxygen-canisters wreckage is slowly recovered from the Everglades swampland into which the aircraft dived on 11 May. US National Transportation Safety ...
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Airlines force Boeing to raise 747-600X range
Paul Lewis/SEATTLE AIRLINE PRESSURE has forced Boeing to increase the range of its proposed 747-600X. The move is one of several changes in baseline performance which the Seattle-based manufacturer is considering for the 747X programme following input received from potential customers. Design range has been ...
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Regional repercussions
Regional jets headline this year's US Regional Airline Association show, with the debut of Embraer's EMB-145 and the debate on turboprop safety. Graham Warwick/ATLANTA MORE THAN 18 months after an American Eagle ATR 72 crashed near Roselawn, Indiana killing all 68 people on board, repercussions of the accident ...
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Power Pool
THE COMMERCIAL-ENGINES business is among the biggest of big-risk businesses, and the risk is seldom bigger than when a new engine is required for an as-yet-unproven large airliner. So it should come as no surprise that two engine manufacturers should pool resources to minimise the risk of participating in such ...
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UPS may package passengers
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA UPS Airlines is considering operating weekend passenger-charter services using otherwise-idle cargo aircraft. As a first move, quick-change conversion kits for five Boeing 727-100 freighters are being considered as a way to increase aircraft utilisation. The results of a study into the feasibility of offering passenger-charter services to tour ...
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Zimbabwe Government loses patience with Fokkers
THE ZIMBABWE Government has told Air Zimbabwe to terminate its leases on two Fokker 50 turboprops, following concerns about their performance and their adverse effect on the country's tourist industry. After a parliamentary committee concluded that the aircraft were not suitable for operations from hot-and-high airports during the ...
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New entrant
Tim Furniss/LONDON A NEW ENTRANT in the commercial-launcher market will have its debut on 25 May with the lift-off of Europe's Ariane 5. The first flight will carry four Cluster science satellites, on the first of two European Space Agency-funded demonstration flights. When it enters service ...
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The precision- and non-precision-approach debate
Sir - I refer to "Why a precision approach is safer" (Letters, Flight International, 17-23 April, P62), in which Dimitris Vourdoubas and Capt John Raby argue the pros and cons of attempting to fly a non-precision approach to a constant slope. Unfortunately, non-precision approaches vary, not least in ...
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Sabena crew deal paves way to cost cutting
SABENA HAS TIED UP a deal with its pilots over the crewing of the group's incoming fleet of Avro RJ85 regional jets and says that it has had "very constructive" negotiations with its unions over the broader cost-cutting measures. Although the RJ85 fleet will be operated within regional subsidiary Delta ...
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FAA icing rules change
MOST US REGIONAL-airline operators of turboprop-powered aircraft will face minor operational restrictions rather than costly modifications, according to the finalised Federal Aviation Administration rules about flight in icing conditions (Flight International, 7-13 February). Major anti-icing system design changes like those demanded for the ATR 42 have not been required. ...
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Small-aircraft owners catch on to self-fuelling
PERRY MAINTENANCE has purchased self-service-refuelling specialist Cornerstone and formed a new division, Perry Aviation Refueling (PAR). Fuel supplier Air BP, meanwhile, has launched a self-service aviation fuel card, which customers will be able to use at selected fixed-base operators (FBOs). Indiana-based PAR says that self-service refuelling at FBOs ...
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BFGoodrich strikes with new Stormscope thunderstorm detector
BFGOODRICH Aerospace has introduced the WX-950 Stormscope thunderstorm-detection system, billed as the only lighting detector with two modes of operation. In cell mode, the WX-950 uses a ranging algorithm to map thunderstorms. In strike mode, the system records and displays individual lightning strikes. While cell mode was developed ...
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China to invest in ATC updates
CHINA IS PLANNING TO spend about 6 billion yuan ($720 million) on updating its air-traffic-control (ATC) systems. Bao Peide, deputy director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), says that 440 million yuan will be spent making the system fully communications, navigation and surveillance/air-traffic management compatible. The balance will ...
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Regional and utility aircraft directory
Fokker's demise is the most dramatic in a series of upheavals taking place throughout the regional-aircraft industry Compiled by Andrew Doyle and Jennifer Pite/LONDON Graham Warwick/ATLANTA FOKKER IS DOWN, the count almost over, but the winner is far from clear: not the customers left with unfulfilled orders for ...
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NTSB criticises FAA on 737 FDR
NATIONAL Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), chairman Jim Hall has criticised the US Federal Aviation Administration, for rejecting the Boards call for an immediate upgrade, of Boeing 737 flight data recorders (FDRs). Proposed new rules about the retrofit of modern FDRs on commercial passenger-carrying aircraft will soon be issued ...
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DASA prepares 328 cryoplane
DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) is to go ahead with a programme to convert a Dornier 328 turboprop to a hydrogen-fuelled testbed late this year. "The aim is to use the knowhow gained with the Dornier 328...for Airbus applications at a later date," says DASA. The project, now in ...
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Saab 2000 'main problem' is more to do with speedy service
Sir - I read the story on the Saab 2000 "Deutsche BA suspends deliveries" (Flight International, 10-16 April, P5). I believe that the aircraft deserves better publicity than this. As a pilot who has had 18 months' experience of flying the 2000 through two European winters, I am able to ...
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Ilyushin sells first production Il-103
ILYUSHIN HAS SOLD the first production version of the five-seat Il-103 to an undisclosed customer. The aircraft, is believed to have been sold to a South African client who undertook demonstration flights in April. The Il-103 is produced at the Lukhovitsy plant near Moscow, which is a member of MAPO ...