The media have been rightly confused by the story which says that Singapore radar saw MH370 descend to 5,000ft from 35,000ft after switching off the transponder. The proposed reason for the descent is that at such a low altitude even the military radar couldn’t see them. So why could Singapore radar see them, then? 5,000ft […]
The flight path of the MH370 story
It was about 01:30 local time on Saturday 8 March that the secondary radar return of flight MH370 no longer painted on Kuala Lumpur radar screens, and no-one at the Vietnamese ATC centre at Ho Chi Minh City that was expecting to take over surveillance responsibility for it could see them either. A week later, […]
Malaysia is handling MH370 incompetently
It’s bad enough for a widebody jet to go missing with 239 people on board, but then for the responsible country’s government and aviation agencies to handle the associated information with total incompetence is unforgivable. China, which may have lost more of its nationals on board than any other single country, certainly thinks so. This […]
A surge in public interest
After witnesses near London Heathrow saw a British Airways Airbus A319 suffer what looked and sounded like an engine failure soon after take-off in the evening of 6 March, there was, perhaps predictably, a lot of media publicity given to the event. The airline subsequently confirmed that one of the aircraft’s engines had “surged”, and […]
Air traffic management and geology
At the World ATM Congress in Madrid I was waiting for something to fire up my enthusiasm when someone explained why I was waiting so long. He told the Conference from the podium that watching ATM developments in Europe’s Single European Sky programme was “more like watching geology than Formula 1″. That was David McMillan, former […]
New paint for Red Arrows
The Reds and the Blues (the Reds’ engineering team) show off the new tail livery which has been adopted to celebrate the team’s 50th display season. Before the Red Arrows? The Black Arrows, of course. A team of 16 Hawker Hunters. They were good too
Pilots are an “Honourable Company”
For a long time Master Mariners have been recognised as an Honourable Company, but finally air pilots and air navigators have been accorded that privilege. About time. This is how the accolade has been announced: “The former Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators has unveiled a new name, reflecting the notable honour bestowed upon it […]
Norwegian’s corporate model: does it have safety implications?
Norwegian Air Shuttle is preparing to set up a transatlantic operation with its registration and its corporate HQ in Ireland. It won’t operate out of Ireland, but it has applied to the Irish Aviation Authority for an Irish air operator’s certificate and to the US Department of Transportation for a foreign air carrier permit to […]
NATS’ clever invention will reduce delay at LHR
UK air navigation service provider NATS has just achieved a “world first” by winning approval to operate time-based aircraft separation on runway approaches at London Heathrow airport. So what? Well, if your airport is not operating at full capacity, this doesn’t provide you with much of an advantage. But if, like Heathrow, you are operating […]
The ECA, the MPL and the CPL
After I stated my reservations (see blog entry beneath this one) about the European Cockpit Association’s approach to the multi-crew pilot licence (MPL), the ECA wrote to me about it. I asked their permission to publish their letter and they agreed, so here it is: “We have read with great interest your latest blog on […]
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