Recently in Cargo Category

....not absolutely sure, but something big and heavy came off this Sudanese Boeing 707 just before it crashed at Sharjah, UAE two days ago. You can see it in this video, although you have to watch carefully.

It's a well-documented issue on the 707 and the KC-135, although there have been several different reasons why it happened. A key issue is that the loss of one engine sometimes leads to the loss of the adjacent one - although again for different reasons.

This is a security camera video of the Azza Air Transport freighter crash at Sharjah. You see the aircraft take off from right to left, an object falls, then the aircraft banks steeply to the right and crashes. A reported six crew all died.

FedEx says it's spent seven years developing its own cargo-hold fire suppression system (FSS) and is going to devote no less than 700 man-hours per aircraft to install it on its 59 Boeing MD-11 freighters, mostly next year although they've started already. It will also go on the new 777 freighters which enter service next year.

That's a pretty impressive commitment to safety.

The FSS consists of a series of infrared detectors, a foam generation system, and - the novel bit - an injector system which forcibly penetrates a burning container and injects the foam inside.

For palletised freight, the company has come up with a new fire blanket that is said to be able to contain a fire for up to four hours. There are impressive demonstrations of both systems in the video below.

It's all primarily aimed at the threat of fires on FedEx's increasingly large long-haul network which routinely leaves the aircraft hours from a usable diversion. Here's the detailed announcement.

It's difficult to explain what was going through the minds of the pilots in that Empire Airlines / FedEx ATR 42 that crashed at Lubbock, TX back in January. Fortunately they survived, but watching the NTSB's animation is still a pretty horrible experience. So many things going wrong and you just will them to go around. But they don't.

The captain had nearly 14,000 hours including more than 2,000 on the ATR, and his experience included Beech 18 time. Never put a foot wrong as far as anyone can tell. Here's what he told the NTSB. The female first officer had 2,000 hours including 130 on the ATR, and here's what she said. I'm struck that neither of them has a bad word about each other or about the company. But it's pretty obvious that she would have gone around if he hadn't taken control.

...I wasn't exactly kidding, because there is a breed of aviators who quite like living that kind of life. But I don't think even they thought they were signing up for this sort of stuff. Turns out that even if you're the sort of hardened freight dog who's happy lobbing 727s onto challenging runways in the sunshine, you really might want to try it with a different employer.

Press release here. Video below. (No doubt there's another side to the story, although I'm curious as to what it might be?)

Well, from time to time anyway. Enjoy the Sonata Ruslan. Looks like the An-124 is really going to go back into production BTW. A rare example of a niche design that is also a commercial success.