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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0143.PDF
ACT fc&ifa. •4/fl CARIBBEAN JRA^Sf-rif-r-r This DC-7C/F, 6Y-JFK, was photographed recently at Palisadoes Airport, Kingston, Jamaica, where its operators. Air Caribbean Transport, are based to operate cargo flights to neighbouring points in the Caribbean area. The company was formed in March last year and has two DC-7C/Fs bought from Universal Airlines; the other is 6Y-JFS. They were earlier G-AOII and 'J o BOACs Seven Seas fleet AIR TRANSPORT., WHISKEY ECHO ERROR AN internally compiled report on the accident to BOAC's Boeing 707 G-ARWE on April 8, 1968, reveals that the fire extinguisher handle of the engine involved was not pulled. The engineer, whose duty it was, thought that he had pulled the handle, and the first officer also thought it had been pulled. Neither the captain, nor a check captain on the flight deck, could remember the handle being pulled. Four passengers and a stewardess died in the aircraft, which made an emergency landing after a compressor blade broke in No 2 engine, causing it to fall off. Fuel from the pipe leading to No 2 engine caught fire in the air and its continued burning on the ground was one of the main reasons why the aircraft was almost completely gutted after landing. The report says: "The aircraft evidence and the uninterrupted fire discounts the possibility that the handle was pulled and pushed in again. Had this occurred the fire would have gone out due to fuel starvation and reopening the valve would have resulted in a fuel leakage." COINCIDENCE OR NOT? TWO fatal crashes at the same airport by the same type aircraft within 13 days has the US National Transportation Safety Board in a state of concern even though the probable causes of the two accidents have not yet been determined. As already reported (see Flight for January 9, page 52, and January 16, page 82) Allegheny Airlines' Convair 580s, the Allison-turboprop conversion of the Convair 340/440, were involved in both accidents. In each case, the pilots were on final approach to landings on the SE-NW runway at Bradford, Pa, in light snowfalls. The Convair which crashed on January 6, killing the pilot, co-pilot and nine of 26 passengers, was approximately four miles from the end of Runway 14 when it struck the top of a tree. The aircraft was accurately lined up, tout was approxi mately 1,000ft below the glidepath when it hit. In the Decem ber 24 crash, the aircraft was approaching from the opposite direction, towards Runway 32, when it crashed in a snow- covered field. At the time of the first accident the visibility was reported to be 1-li miles with an 800ft ceiling; for the second crash visibility was similar, but the ceiling was only 500ft—which is the minimum permitted for an instrument landing on Runway 14 at Bradford. Because of the two accidents, Allegheny has now forbidden its pilots to make instrument landings at 23 of the airports, including Bradford, being served. There is neither a control tower nor an approved ILS at Bradford, and the FAA has come under criticism for its delay in installing ILS there. Such a system has been authorised for 1970 installation, and, shortly after the second crash, there were high-level local demands for the timetable to be speeded up. Federal funds for naviga tion aids are generally allocated on a priority system which is based primarily on the number of operations at each airport. The Air Line Pilots Association, commenting on the Bradford crashes, said that it has repeatedly asked the FAA to install ILS at every airport in the USA served by a scheduled carrier. In the meantime the Safety Board has had a team of investigators at Bradford studying the two crashes after assigning the same team to the second accident. PROTECTION FROM SMOKE A REQUIREMENT for the provision of smoke hoods, for use by all passengers and crew members in evacuation following a crash landing and fire, has been proposed by the Federal Aviation Administration. The hoods would be located near to each occupant and demonstrations of their use would be part of the usual passenger briefing by the flight attendants. Experiments with such hoods, conducted for several years at the FAA's Civil Aeromedical Institute in Oklahoma City, have demonstrated the value of this equipment. A number of light weight, plastic-type, fireproof prototype models have been successfully developed, indicating an increased probability of personal safety in the case of survivable accidents. The FAA's experience also suggests that approved smoke hoods can be manufactured in sufficient quantity and at a reasonable cost. Use of the hoods would, under the proposal, be mandatory during the 90sec emergency evacuation demonstrations which must be conducted by manufacturers seeking FAA type certification of new aircraft and by airline operators before introducing new or significantly modified equipment into passenger service. The hoods would be transparent, allow free movement and speech, be easily fitted, hold at least 25.6 litres of air, and be capable of withstanding sudden temperatures of 1,200°F for at least five minutes and of exposure to flame for at least 30sec. ARIANA ACCIDENT: FIRST FINDINGS ON January 17 the Board of Trade issued a preliminary statement on the accident to Ariana Afghan Airlines' Boeing 727 (YA-FAR) on January 5 on the approach to Gatwick. The Accident Investigation Branch has established that the aircraft "was flying in clear air above the fog when it was positioned toy Gatwick approach radar onto the ILS localiser beam" says the Board of Trade. The statement goes oh: "Although the RVR was reported as 100 metres, the fog was patchy and lights on the ground were visible from atoove the top of the fog. The captain coupled
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