All Ops & safety articles – Page 1391
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ARIA looks to PW2000s to improve Il-96-300s
ILYUSHIN IS TO DEVELOP modifications to the Il-96-300 to allow Aeroflot - Russian International Airlines (ARIA) to re-engine its Il-96 fleet with Pratt & Whitney PW2037 turbofans, and improve reliability. A formal agreement on the design work, which was signed recently by ARIA's general director Marshal Evgeni ...
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Untested software is blamed for failure of Ariane 5 launch
Tim Furniss/LONDON THE FAILURE of the maiden launch of the European Space Agency's (ESA) Ariane 5 on 4 June resulted from the booster flying with an Ariane 4 dual-inertial reference system (IRS) untested for use in a new launch environment. The system also had "specification and design ...
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Antonov's second An-70 nears completion despite lack of funding
THE SECOND Antonov An-70 propfan-powered medium transport is nearing completion at the design bureau's prototype plant in Kiev. The programme has been stalled since the first aircraft crashed in early 1995. Antonov deputy general designer Oleg Bogdanov says that the airframe and wiring has been completed, and ...
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Boeing 747-X flies by wire
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES BOEING HAS AGREED to airline demands to offer a full fly-by-wire (FBW) flight-control system and other advanced-technology features on its new 747-500X and -600X. The US manufacturer has also told its airline working group that, despite the move to FBW and other ...
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Boeing to review 777 cabin pressure after diversion
BOEING IS AGAIN reviewing the design of the 777 cabin-pressurisation system, following the diversion of a United Airlines (UAL) aircraft to Gander, Newfoundland, while being flown on a transatlantic flight. The 777 suffered "a loss of pressure" rather than a sudden depressurisation, says the airline, which adds that ...
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Industry opposes airline safety ranking
US AIRLINES ARE opposing a US Federal Aviation Administration proposal to rank airlines by safety. The concept is favoured by consumer groups and by some US lawmakers, who say that the US Transportation Department should go beyond ranking airline on-time performance only. The FAA is studying the issues ...
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The Top Fifty Airlines
The world airline industry made record profits in 1995, but will the boom last? The signs are mixed from this year's ranking of the world's top 50passenger-airline groups. Kevin O'Toole/LONDON IT HAS TAKEN a long time to arrive, but recovery in the world airline industry appears to ...
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NTSB analyses 'sound' on TWA recorder
INVESTIGATORS ARE analysing a brief sound on the cockpit-voice-recorder (CVR) tape recovered from the wreckage of Trans World Airlines Flight 800, looking for clues as to why the Boeing 747-100 exploded soon after take-off from New York Kennedy on 17 July, killing all 230 on board. Initial ...
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British Midland fined
British Midland Airways has been fined £150,000 ($233,000) by a UK court after admitting "negligently endangering life", following an unprecedented criminal prosecution brought by the UK Civil Aviation Authority. The case relates to an incident in February 1995, when one of the airline's Boeing 737-400s made an emergency ...
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Swanwick delays cost CAA dearly
Max Kingsley-Jones/LONDON THE UK CIVIL AVIATION Authority has confirmed that delays to the UK's new Swanwick en route air-traffic-control centre will leave it with a bill of around £10 million ($15.6 million), but says that it hopes to avoid raising user charges to meet the costs. ...
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CAA/BAA's 'rosy relationship'
Sir - The comments made by The Times newspaper of the UK on 17 July, responding to the Monopolies and Mergers Commission inquiry on behalf of the UK Civil Aviation Authority into airports authority BAA, are timely, uncannily accurate, and sum up with commendable clarity the relationship between BAA (a ...
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P&WC tests Calcor nozzle
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA PRATT & WHITNEY Canada has completed initial tests of Calcor Aero Systems' thrust-reverser/variable-exhaust-nozzle (REVEN) on a PW306. Calcor says that the engine runs, in a Toronto test cell, give it confidence that the nozzle will reduce specific fuel consumption (SFC) and increase thrust in altitude ...
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Computers must be kept in their place
Sir - Charles Manning says that British Airways pilots were "petulant" in threatening strike action (Letters, Flight International, 17-23 July, P38). In the event, a compromise agreement was reached with their employer, which sounds like healthy industrial relations to me. As for replacing pilots entirely with automatic systems, ...
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Under oversight?
FIRST, THE FEDERAL Aviation Administration in the USA was the target: now it is the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK. Each has been accused of failing to maintain satisfactory oversight of airline maintenance operations. If they cannot satisfy the expectations of the travelling public and their legal representatives, are ...
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Pressure drop
An America West Airbus A320 lost cabin pressure at 33,000ft (10,000m) shortly after take-off from Columbus, Ohio, en route to Newark, New Jersey, on 12 July. The crew made an emergency landing at Port Columbus International Airport. None of the 37 passengers and seven crew members were injured. ...
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Air safety
Malaysia and Ghana have been added to the list of countries whose monitoring of air safety is found acceptable to the US Federal Aviation Administration. The aviation agency is assessing the safety oversight of carriers, which operate to the USA. The FAA has judged aviation safety standards of 58 nations ...
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Latin two-step
Miami-based Pan Am International Flight Academy and Phoenix East Aviation, a flight school in Daytona Beach, Florida, have formed the Latin American Flight Training Academy marketing alliance to offer ab initio airline-pilot training, including simulator training at Pan Am, as well as flight-attendant training. Meanwhile, Pan Am is installing an ...
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KLM to cut costs
KLM has announced a programme to cut DFl300 million ($175 million) from its procurement costs, covering areas such as catering and fuel. The cut represents around 5% of the airline's supplier costs. Source: Flight International
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Volga-Dnepr thrives
Russian cargo carrier, Volga-Dnepr Airlines reports a sales boom, over the first half of the year, led by demand for its fleet, of six heavy-lift Antonov An-124-100 Ruslans. Sales for the An-124s rose by 55%, to $44 million, over the half year. Volga-Dnepr estimates that it now holds, around 60% ...
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Japan blames Airbus and China Airlines for 1994 Nagoya Airport accident
AIRBUS INDUSTRIE and China Airlines (CAL) have both been attributed with blame by a Japanese investigation into the April 1994 crash of an A300-600R at Nagoya. A final report issued by Japan's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission (AAIC) points to deficiencies in the design of the aircraft's flight-control ...