All Ops & safety articles – Page 1399
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News
Lufthansa Technik chief angry
THE CHAIRMAN AND chief executive of German maintenance company Lufthansa Technik, Wolfgang Mayrhuber, says that he may complain to the European Commission about the low prices which some loss-making, government-subsidised, European airlines and maintenance companies are charging. Mayrhuber says that he does not mind if a government helps ...
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Air-traffic-controller strikes blamed for European delays
Julian Moxon/PARIS STRIKES BY AIR-TRAFFIC controllers and the shortage of airport and airspace capacity are being blamed for a serious increase in departure delays in Europe during the July-September period. The Association of European Airlines (AEA) describes as "appalling" the figures for the three months, in ...
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Messier-Dowty plans to lower cost of landing gear for Airbus
Andrew Doyle/LONDON MESSIER-DOWTY AIMS to slash the cost of manufacturing Airbus landing gears by 20-40%, while increasing commonality of parts across the product range and reducing the cost of ownership for airlines, says Geoff Smith, managing director of the Anglo-French joint-venture. According to Smith, a ...
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Technology aids are a comfort
Technology aids are a comfort Sir - I am perplexed as to the state of flight in, which Capt. Bill Pike achieves "full back stick" on his Boeing (Flight International, Letters, 1-7 November, P64). Perhaps the captain is an exponent of the "snatch" rotation technique on ...
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Northwest fumes at KLM activities
NORTHWEST AIRLINES has effectively accused its Dutch partner, KLM, of attempting to gain control of the company, as boardroom friction between the two airlines heads towards legal action. The accusation comes in a letter to Northwest employees, explaining the board's decision to put a "poison pill" in place ...
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Hull-loss accident rate climbing
COMMERCIAL JET HULL-loss accident rates are increasing, according to Boeing's chief of systems engineering, Earl Weener. If the trends are sustained, the number of hull losses per million departures will be higher than it was 20 years ago, Weener told a Flight Safety Foundation seminar in Seattle on 6-9 November. ...
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American Airlines MD-83 crashed on approach
An American Airlines McDonnell Douglas MD-83 from Chicago hit trees and force-landed, in heavy rain and darkness, just short of the runway at Bradley International Airport, USA on 12 November. None of the five crew or 72 passengers was injured. Bradley's tower had been damaged in the storm, ...
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TTS builds 777 for Orbit subsidiary
THOMSON TRAINING & Simulation (TTS) is to install a Boeing 777 full-flight simulator at its Orbit Flight Training subsidiary at East Midlands Airport in the UK. The simulator will be the first for the 777 to be operated by an independent European training-centre. British Airways, has agreed to ...
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Lower minima and TCAS for HGS-fitted 737s
BOEING 737-300s FITTED with Flight Dynamics head-up guidance systems (HGS) have been approved by the US Federal Aviation Administration for take-off operations in visibility conditions as low as 90m (300ft) runway visual range (RVR). Operators of HGS-equipped 737-300s were cleared to perform landing operations with RVRs of 210m ...
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SAS will hushkit DC-9s despite 737-600 order
Andrew Doyle/LONDON SAS IS TO HUSHKIT ALL of its remaining McDonnell Douglas DC-9s by January 1997, despite having placed an order for up to 76 Boeing 737-600s earlier this year (Flight International, 22-28 March). The carrier has been forced to take action as Scandinavian airports ...
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KLM reporting a record first half
BRITISH AIRWAYS HAD a clutch of record traffic figures and its highest-ever profits to show as the group revealed an "outstanding" set of results for the first half of the financial year. Net profits climbed to £323 million over the six months to September, as sales broke through ...
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Fear of litigation threatens US safety, says Hinson
THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is planning to "secure" voluntarily reported incident data filed by US airlines, despite problems with the US Freedom of Information Act, according to FAA Administrator David Hinson. Giving the keynote address at the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) 1995 seminar in Seattle on 7 ...
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Flight of fancy?
The debate about free-flight air navigation continues. In the USA... Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration and the civil-aviation community "...stand at the threshold of a great opportunity to safely re-order the [nation's] air-traffic system". This statement supporting "free-flight" air navigation is taken ...
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Novel design
Peter Henley/NORTH WEALD A MERE GLANCE at the Grob 200 reveals its designer's novel approach to his task. The airframe is constructed of composite materials, its engine is mounted behind the cabin (driving a three-bladed pusher propeller which lives on the end of a long tailcone), directional stability ...
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Welcome common sense on JAA rules
Sir - The editorial "Regulatory fatigue" (Flight International, 1-7 November) was a welcome shaft of common sense in the dreary saga of the move towards European Joint Airworthiness Authorities (JAA) regulations on flight-time limitations and the proposed changes in the USA and Canada. No-one should underestimate the difficulties ...
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India prepares for change to CNS/ATM
David Learmount/SEATTLE INDIA HAS DRAWN up plans to replace its terrestrial air-traffic-control (ATC) system with a global-navigation satellite-system (GNSS)-based communications, navigation and surveillance/air-traffic management (CNS/ATM) by 2015. A Government study shows that the new system has the potential to yield tenfold increases in system air-traffic capacity ...
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FSF chairman challenges RAA to take pro-active role
FLIGHT SAFETY Foundation (FSF) chairman Stuart Matthews has hit out at the US Regional Airlines Association (RAA) decision to spend $500,000 on a publicity campaign promoting the safety image of the regional, rather than investing in what he describes as more "pro-active" safety measures. Matthews says that ...
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Sextant HFDS certificated
SEXTANT AVIONIQUE has achieved French certification of its head-up flight-display system (HFDS) for Category IIIB landings in the Boeing 737-300. Launch customer Aeropostal has carried out the first commercial flight using the system. Aeropostal flies passengers by day, converting its aircraft to freight configuration for night-mail services. Director-general ...
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Bidders line up for Kenya Airways stake
KENYA AIRWAYS IS close to selecting a strategic airline-partner, with KLM understood to have joined front runners British Airways and South African Airways (SAA) among the final bidders. Submissions were handed in on 3 November, with a winner due to be selected, on 30 November, at a meeting ...
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Reduced separations lie ahead on Atlantic routes
Guy Norris/LOS ANGELES THE NORTH ATLANTIC Systems Planning Group (NATSPG) plans to start preparations in December to pave the way for the introduction of a trial 1,000ft (300m) reduced vertical- separation minima (RVSM) across the Atlantic by January 1997. The NATSPG, which includes all major ...