All Ops & safety articles – Page 1426
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News
JAL's rating dips below 'A' grade
JAPAN AIRLINES (JAL) has lost its A-grade long-term credit rating following concerns over the speed of the group's recovery and the weakness of its balance sheet. Standard & Poor's (S&P) rating agency warns that JAL's recovery is likely to be "more gradual than anticipated". It highlights the pending ...
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MAS chairman confirms big-twin plans
Paul Lewis/KUALA LUMPUR MALAYSIA AIRLINES (MAS) chairman Tajudin Ramli has confirmed plans to order new long-range widebody aircraft, worth $4 billion, by the end of the year, although he appears to rule out a decision in time for the Malaysian air show in early December. ...
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French domestic traffic boosted
THE ARRIVAL OF competition on French domestic routes has resulted in a dramatic increase in traffic originating at two of the busiest airports in the country. In the nine months to the end of September, passenger traffic at Marseilles-Provence Airport increased overall by 5.9%, following a growth of ...
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Cargo in control
Lufthansa Cargo achieved its long-sought independence at the start of 1995. The business has not looked back since. Kevin O'Toole/LONDON WILHELM ALTHEN, chairman of Lufthansa Cargo, is clearly a happy man. For the past two decades, he has campaigned for air cargo to be treated ...
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Engineers of many talents wanted
Sir - I have purposely waited to write this letter, so that I can ask the gentleman in charge of appointments at Airbus Industrie whether he has filled the advertised avionics-engineer position (Flight International, 23-29 August, P53). The advertisement includes the statement: "Candidates must be fluent in French, ...
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US manufacturers stay on top of orders league
In the third quarter of 1995, US aircraft manufacturers received net orders for 74 large commercial jet transports out of a total of 86 placed worldwide, according to the US Aerospace Industries Association (AIA). By comparison, US aircraft makers secured net orders for 79 aircraft out of a total of ...
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Too much too soon?
The outbreak of massive orders must surely have made the last quarter of 1995 a dream for aircraft salesmen - but does it mean a return to nightmares for airframe and engine manufacturers? Probably the biggest single fear for a manufacturer, after that of not having any orders, is that ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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Pilot fatigue: no simple answers
Sir - The editorial "Regulatory fatigue" (Flight International, 1-7 November), augmented by pilots' views on P8, permits the reader only two possible conclusions. The first is that pilots in different parts of the world have different physiological characteristics as indicated by the fatigue levels ascribed to them by ...
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The first assembly missions
Flight 1A/R Nov 1997 Russia Russian Functional Energy Block (FGB) launched on the Proton, to provide propulsion, guidance, communications, 3.2kW electrical power and thermal control. One front-docking system, with forward and lower ports, and one rear docking system. Flight 2A Dec 1997 USA STS88/Endeavour ...
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Zeppelin prototype enters final assembly
Zeppelin Luftschiff-technik has begun final assembly of its New Technology (NT) airship prototype - the first rigid airship the company has produced since the Second World War. The 68m-long prototype, LZ N07, is scheduled for completion in July 1996, in time for an "official" first flight in early ...