All Ops & safety articles – Page 1435
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News
EC barriers control the pilot market
Sir - Your Comment regarding the mobility of the European airline-pilot market (Flight International, 9-15 August, P3) was interesting and pertinent. I have worked as a contract captain for European Community (EC) airlines for seven years. I have held Belgian, Dutch and Scandinavian air-transport-pilot's licences. The validation of ...
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MAS chief barters orders for slots
MALAYSIA AIRLINES (MAS) chairman Tajudin Ramli has threatened to stop any further purchases of Airbus Industrie aircraft unless France grants the carrier additional landing rights in Paris. The Malaysian flag carrier wants to increase its services between Kuala Lumpur and Paris from twice a week to twice daily. ...
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Swissair sacrifices jobs in bid for profit
SWISSAIR IS TO shed 1,600 jobs over the next 18 months in an effort to pull its flight operations back into profit. The Swiss carrier says it also plans to renegotiate pilot contracts. The airline hopes that the majority of the job losses, which represent around 10% ...
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Medical cost-cutter
LUFTHANSA Technik has developed a device for moving seriously ill patients on board airliners, which it claims is up to 60% cheaper to use, than a private-ambulance aircraft. The patient-transport compartment (PTC), includes breathing apparatus and a 13,000litre oxygen supply. Until recently, the carriage of such a large amount of ...
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MAS crash
A Malaysian Airline System (MAS) Fokker 50 overshot the runway while making an emergency landing on 15 September at Tawau Airport in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah, crashing into a row of houses. There were survivors among the 50 passengers and an unknown number of fatalities on the ground. ...
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Weak dollar ravages DASA
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON DAIMLER-BENZ Aerospace (DASA) racked up massive losses in the first half of the year as the weakness of the US dollar against the deutsche mark ravaged its civil-aircraft sales. The German group posted a loss of DM1.6 billion ($1 billion) for the period, ...
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FAA sets up safety- monitor database
THE US FEDERAL Aviation Administration is planning to have a database for monitoring the air-transport industry's "safety health" operational by February 1996. The new Safety Performance Analysis System (SPAS) will have data entered by FAA field inspectors as they carry out periodic checks of airlines and installations. SPAS ...
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Peril of departing from standards
Sir - As more aircraft are in competition for slots in increasingly crowded routes, air-traffic control (ATC) has resorted to assigning aircraft non-standard levels to facilitate traffic flow. I witnessed recently a competent controller in a non-radar environment having to berate the crew of a European flag carrier ...
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Qantas will fit TCAS to domestic fleet wide
QANTAS IS TO SPEND about A$10 million ($7.5 million) fitting traffic-alert and collision-avoidance systems (TCAS) to its entire domestic turbofan fleet, following a recommendation from its safety department after an increase in near-misses in Australia. The systems will be fitted to some 40 Boeing 737s and Airbus A300-B4s. ...
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USAfrica fights for frequencies
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC USAFRICA AIRWAYS IS challenging a US Department of Transportation (DoT) decision to reallocate the carrier's seven frequencies in the US-South Africa market to World Airways and Southern Air Transport. USAfrica, which shut down operations and filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in February, ...
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Flying firefighters
The London fire service has been conducting an extensive trial in the use of helicopter air support. Brian Walters/LONDON EVERY WORKING DAY, about 2.5 million motor vehicles enter London, resulting in acute traffic jams at peak hours. In those conditions, it is hard for emergency services to ...
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NTSB
Dr Bernard Loeb has been named director of the Office of Aviation Safety at the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), heading its 100-plus aviation-accident investigators. Loeb, formerly head of the Office of Research and Engineering, replaces William Laynor, who is to retire. John Goglia is named a member of ...
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Air Inter to sell A330s as part of re-organisation
Gilbert Sedbon/PARIS FRENCH DOMESTIC and regional carrier Air Inter is looking for buyers for its 400-seat Airbus A330-300 long-haul aircraft. The airline's management considers that the aircraft is "too big" for its needs as it repositions itself to become the Air France Group's low-cost European operation. ...
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United 777s: heavy but happy
Guy Norris/Los Angeles UNITED AIRLINES admits that its first Boeing 777s is overweight, but is still satisfied with the aircraft's performance. New 16G crash-worthy seating is the largest single contributor to the higher-than-expected operating empty weight (OEW) of the initial aircraft, says the carrier. In United's ...
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Traffic boom boosts European airports figures
Kevin O'Toole/LONDON EUROPE'S AIRPORTS have emerged showing the world's strongest passenger-growth over the first half of the year, giving further confirmation of the traffic boom now taking place in the region. Passenger throughput for European airports grew by 7.8%, according to the latest figures from the ...
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Greek air-traffic control causes serious pilot-concern
Julian Moxon/Paris EUROPEAN PILOTS' associations have raised major concerns over continuing "very serious" air-traffic-control (ATC) problems in Greece. The German and Scandinavian Airline Pilots Associations have called the situation "disastrous", citing a survey of pilots which found that they were frequently unable to understand the instructions ...
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UK schools angry at US training plan
FLYING SCHOOLS based in the UK have reacted angrily to the UK Civil Aviation Authority's decision to allow two flight centres in the USA to run CAA-approved courses for commercial pilot training (Flight International, 2-8 August, P20). Acting on the UK schools' behalf, the General Aviation Manufacturers ...
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Lockheed answers arms-sales queries
Graham Warwick/ATLANTA LOCKHEED MARTIN says that it is responding to "...three unrelated federal subpoenas seeking information...on its use of consultants on foreign sales". Documents requested concern the sales of F-16s to South Korea and at least five other countries since 1990, plus the sale of ...
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Cathay moves its simulators Australia
CATHAY PACIFIC Airways is to relocate most of its flight- simulator capability from Hong Kong to an Australian site yet to be decided. The move follows an A$15 million ($11.2 million) concession from the Australian Government against tax which would have been due on the company's five simulators. The first ...