FAULTY ALTIMETER CAUSED TURKISH 737 THRUST CUT
Dutch investigators have concluded an incorrect reading of the radio altimeter led a Turkish Airlines Boeing 737-800's autothrottle to command a thrust reduction in both engines to "idle", before the aircraft crashed short of touchdown at Amsterdam Schiphol on 25 February 2009, killing nine of the 135 people on board. Investigators also found the aircraft's approach was not stabilised at 1,000ft (300m) and the crew should have executed a go-around.
STEALTH SUKHOI COMES BACK FROM SIBERIA
Sukhoi has moved its PAK FA/T-50 stealth fighter prototype from KnAAPO's Komsomolsk-on-Amur site in Siberia to Zhukovsky air base near Moscow for continued testing. The fifth-generation aircraft was transferred during the seventh sortie since making its flight debut in early February.
TU-154 INQUIRY QUESTIONS YAK-40 CREW
The inquiry into the crash of the Polish presidential Tupolev Tu-154 at Smolensk is interviewing the crew of a Yakovlev Yak-40 from the same squadron. The Yak-40 landed ahead of the ill-fated jet and the crew warned the Tu-154 pilots, by radio, of worsening weather conditions. An Ilyushin Il-76 had also made test approaches before the Tu-154, but wake turbulence has been excluded as a cause of the crash.
BOEING OUT AS CZECH GOES ALL-AIRBUS
Government-controlled Czech Airlines is to slash its fleet and network by up to 30%, and eliminate its Boeing 737-400/500 fleet, by the end of 2012. The carrier will move to a single-type operation based on Airbus A320-family aircraft.
BRAZIL'S TAM PLANS BIOFUELS FLIGHT
Brazil's TAM is to hold what it claims will be the first Latin American biofuels demonstration flight later this year, using a mixture including fuel derived from Jatropha plant biomass.
MALAYSIAN A380 DELIVERY DELAYED A THIRD TIME
Malaysia Airlines has had the delivery of its first of six A380s delayed a third time by Airbus. The aircraft initially was due to arrive in January 2007, but will now arrive in the first half of 2012 instead of August 2011, says MAS, which expects more than $100 million in compensation payments for the first two delays.
VOLCANO COMPENSATION HITS BUDGETS BUFFER
Brussels has given European governments a state aid go-ahead to compensate airlines and airports for volcanic ash cloud-related losses, but industry leaders fear little assistance will be forthcoming from cash-strapped national governments. Olivier Jankovec, head of airports group ACI Europe, says: "No government has called the Commission because they all have tight budgets."
AF447 SEARCH 'MAY STILL FIND WRECKAGE'
Hopes were raised last week that the South Atlantic seabed search for wreckage of a crashed Air France Airbus A330 could turn up results by refining the search area following reinterpretation of signals detected last year by a French nuclear submarine. AF447 came down in the South Atlantic on 1 June 2009.
Source: Flight International
