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Aviation History
1960
1960 - 2391.PDF
FLIGHT, 21 October 1960 653 AIR COMMERCE . Rashid Bin Said Al Maktoum, the Ruler of Dubai, who wasreceived by Mr G. R. Scott-Farnie, CBE, managing director of International Aeradio. The general layout plans were prepared by IAL and translatedinto architectural plans by Richard Costain Ltd. The airport has been designed to allow for ease of future expansion. It is capableof receiving aircraft up to and including DC-3s and has a 6,000ft runway, taxi-track, aircraft apron, and terminal building. Here is a model of what the terminal at Moscow's new airport at Sheremetievo will look like when completed. One of the two blocks in the foreground is said to be intended as the airport's hotel UNSUNG HEROES T ITTLE is ever heard about the work of the nine weather shipsJ-' which comprise ICAO's North Atlantic ocean stations net- work, and which are supplied or paid for by the 18 ICAO membergovernments whose airlines fly across the Atlantic. In addition to their primary job of providing surface and upper-air weatherinformation for airline met offices on both sides of the Atlantic, and acting as communications relay points and navigational posi-tion aids to en route aircraft, these ships also provide search and rescue facilities. Although these facilities were originally intendedto deal with airliner emergencies, most of the rescues carried out have, in fact, involved ships in distress. During 1959, accord-ing to a report just published by ICAO about its weather ships, nine people were rescued from drowning—seven from ships andtwo from ditched military aircraft. In addition these weather stations provided medical assistanceto ships 47 times and received ten aeronautical and 574 maritime SOS messages. During their routine functions they made radiocontact with 51,577 aircraft and with 14,791 ships; they provided navigational assistance to aircraft flying across the Atlantic in theform of 45,980 radar position fixes, 19,187 non-scheduled radio beacon transmissions (in addition to beacon transmissions madecontinuously by some of the ships) and 3,396 DF bearings. The jets now flying in increasing numbers between Europe andAmerica require weather information to great altitudes, and all the ocean station weather ships now attain average terminal heightsfor their radiosonde observations of more than 55,OOOft to meet these requirements. NEW LITERATURE ON SLUSH (continued from page 651) views, and Mr Black [BEA station engineer at Munich] had hadthe best opportunity to judge, having been up on the wings throughout refuelling. "But the time we have to consider is not 1519 hours but 1556hours, when the Elizabethan reported ready to taxi for the last time. It was then at least 40 minutes and probably longer sinceCaptain Thain had watched the thawed snow falling from the wing, and 78 minutes since refuelling had ceased and anyone hadinspected the whole upper surface of the wings. It was also 56 minutes since the screen [airport] temperature had reachedzero and within four minutes of the time when the reading was taken as —0.2°. Since the previous decision the aircraft hadtaxied to one end of the runway, made two runs, and taxied back from the other end and, experiencing whatever temperaturevariations there might be in its path and having any evaporative cooling accelerated by the forced draught generated by its speed. "In these circumstances we have no doubt that Captain Thainought to have made a personal inspection of the wings before reaffirming the decision neither to sweep nor to de-ice. Inspectionmeans obtaining a ladder or stand and examining the top of the wings, not looking at the small portion visible from the cockpit.It is clear from the answers [reproduced in the report] that Captain Thain's omission to take this or any other positive steporiginated in his ignorance of the ambient temperature, and his failure to acquaint himself with the available information on thissubject was, in our view, a serious error. We find that he departed with some snow on his wings, in breach of the BEA instructions;the factors making it impossible for us to say, positively, on the evidence before us whether there was ice under the snow, arefactors emphasising the necessity for practical examination at the time. "Captain Thain had then far less information than we have, andthe greater the doubt the greater the necessity for precautions. The facts that he was unfamiliar with Munich, and had had nogreat experience of weather of the kind in question should also have led him to act with caution. We think it true to say that hehad a great deal on his mind, in that he had been unexpectedly confronted with the boost surging; this is a matter which mayhelp to explain his actions, but it cannot affect our finding that to the first question we must return a negative answer. "In approaching the second question, namely whether CaptainThain took sufficient steps to ascertain whether or not in the conditions prevailing at the time the runway was fit for use, werecognise that for a captain to make a personal inspection of a runway is an extreme and infrequent action. Captain Thainfound the runway being used without comment by arriving and departing aircraft, and regarded as safe by the airport authorities;these matters, as he accepts, did not absolve him from respon- sibilty, but he was entitled to have regard to them. The dutyupon him was perhaps higher than in the case of captains of some other aircraft using the runway that afternoon because of his long take-off run, lengthened by the necessity to correct the boostfluctuation; but, as he said in evidence, Munich was not a marginal airport, and he would have had no reason to suspectthat he had not enough runway unless he had possessed a know- ledge of the drag effects of slush which was not then available."Furthermore, had he made an inspection and found the condi- tions to be as described by Bartz [Herr Kurt Bartz, Munich air-port traffic manager, who inspected the runway after the first two attempted take-offs] he would have rightly accepted the runwayas safe, whereas had he noted from the ground as he had from his cockpit, a change in the character of the slush at the two-thirds point along the runway, he could not be expected, in the then prevailing state of knowledge of slush-effects, to have appre-ciated its significance. We find therefore that he did take sufficient steps to ascertain whether in the prevailing conditions the runwaywas fit for use." "The third question is whether Captain Thain took sufficientsteps to ascertain the cause of the difficulties encountered on the first two attempts to take off before making a third attempt. Thisquestion presents no difficulty. We have no doubt that Captain Thain acted correctly in consulting with the station engineer andthat the trouble was correctly diagnosed. We think he acted properly in deciding to make the third attempt." Capt Thain has expressed himself "extremely gratified" withthe Fay findings, and he is reported in a newspaper to have said: "It has highlighted the dangers of slush which no one fullyrealized before. This accident started research which proved that slush on airport runways has the opposite effect to what everyoneused to think. This report shows that the people who died in this accident did not die in vain. That is important to me." [Twenty-three people were killed, including the pilot-in-charge, Capt K. G. Rayment.] Capt Thain's Licence. A Ministry of Aviation official, con-firming that Capt Thain (who has been suspended by BEA, though on full pay, since the accident) had been notified that hislicence can now be renewed, added: "Although the Minister has accepted that Captain Thain failed to take sufficient steps tosatisfy himself that the wings were free from snow and ice and therefore did not fully carry out his responsibilities under the AirNavigation Order as captain of the aircraft, the Minister has decided that in view of the lapse of time, which exceeds anyperiod of suspension which the Minister might have imposed, Captain Thain may, if he applies, requalify for his licence." BALPA's Position. The organization primarily responsible for persuading the Ministry of Aviation to set up the Fay Com- mission on the "scope of the inquiry and the clarity of the report," and accepts its findings. But the pilots' association is "seriously disturbed" by the state of affairs to which the com- mission's report draws attention. A note on BALPA's reactions appears on page 652.
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