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Aviation History
1969
1969 - 0384.PDF
360 FLIGHT International, 6 March 1969 AIR TRANSPORT. .. to need lATA's protection from undercutting by the chartered when much of the expansion of the former is likely to be in the form of block bookings of a high proportion of seats in the large aircraft operating scheduled services? In these circumstances will not the cost per aircraft rather than the cost per seat become the more appropriate basis for fare regulation? If the charter market can be used to guarantee a high load factor on both scheduled and chartered services, are there not exciting possibilities of substantial fare reductions and a much wider choice to the casual passenger if, instead of the restrictions that prevent such passengers from taking up spare seats on chartered aircraft being maintained, these restrictions were to be eased? Given appropriate licensing machinery, with some control over the proportion of scheduled to chartered seats, need such a development be economically unaceptable to individual airlines, wasteful of national resources, and damaging to the British share of the market or to our earnings in foreign exchange? Ft would certainly benefit the travelling public, and British exporters in particular. INCAPACITATED INSTRUCTOR? THE report* on the accident to the Aer Lingus Viscount 803 EI-AOF near Ashbourne, Co Meath, Ireland, during a training flight on June 22, 1967. says that the immediate probable cause was an unintentional stall and incipient spin at a low altitude from which recovery was not possible. There is not enough evidence to determine the circumstances leading to this, but the behaviour of the aircraft in the final stages indicated that it was not under the control of the instructor. The Viscount left Dublin Airport at 0644hr GMT for the conversion instruction of two cadet pilots, and the flight was normal until 0708hr GMT. In the following two to three minutes something happened which caused the aircraft to descend to an altitude very much lower than that cleared, or at which training exercises would normally operate. A possible explanation for the accident involves incapacita tion of the instructor. He was in the left-hand seat with one cadet in the right hand seat and the other either in the jump seat or standing between the two. By experiment it was estab lished that removal of a dead or unconscious man from a pilot seat would not have been possible. As both cadets had completed only 40 minutes on Viscounts it was concluded that, even in the most favourable circumstances, the average cadet would not be able to maintain control of a Viscount without the guidance and psychological support of an instructor. It also seems probable that, had a situation arisen in which the captain was unable to transmit or tell the cadets what to do, they would be incapable, despite efforts to do so, of sending an RT message. Neither of the cadets was instru ment rated though they had some instrument flying and simulator experience and because of the prevailing adverse weather they would probably have been unable to find their way back to base. The suddent descent at about 0708hr GMT could be explained by a spin, but this is unlikely because the aircraft flew for some 30min afterwards. A hypothesis which would be reasonably consistent with the ascertained facts is that the instructor became incapacitated and the cadet at the controls had to take charge. If this occurred, he would not have been able to maintain control of the aircraft above, and possibly in. cloud. Not being able to contact ATC or to use the navaids to return to Dublin, his most likely action would have been to descend through the cloud and attempt to return VFR. Because of his very limited experience in such a complex aircraft his capability would have been strained to its limits even if there had been good visibility under the cloudbase. But the weather conditions were so poor over the whole area that visual flight would scarcely •Available from Government Publications Sales Office, GPO Arcade. Dublin I, price 3s 6d. have been possible for a skilled pilot flying an aircraft with which he was thoroughly familiar. The task of keeping the aeroplane under control and beneath cloud while trying to establish his position may have proved so much beyond him at this stage that a decision to attempt a landing was forced upon him. Witness evidence has estab lished that the aircraft flew for some 20min at low altitude. The cadets intention to land seems to be borne out by the movements of the aircraft in the final stages when what seems to have been an overshoot from an attempt to land was made. The events immediately preceding impact are considered to be consistent with an abandoned attempt to land—an approach with engines throttled: a possible pull-up because the field proved too small, or because the pilot became aware of the electric power lines in the field; speed low enough for a stall; and a sudden burst of power as control was being lost. Both undercarriage and flaps were found to be in the landing position at the time of impact. Muscovite Trident BEA has put the Trident 2 into regular service on its London-Moscow route, cutting 20min oft the Comet journey time of 3hr 40min. Another for LACSA A second BAC One-Eleven 400 has been ordered by the Costa Rican carrier LACSA for delivery in November. One-Eleven orders to date are valued at £230 million with spares. YS-lls for French Operator? The two NAMC YS-I Is which have been on lease to Cruzeiro of Brazil may be leased by Rousseau Aviation of Dinard, France, for charter services. If the contract is signed, as expected, Rousseau will be the first European operator of this twin-turboprop transport. Another Qantas 707 for Canada Pacific Western Airlines of Vancouver is to acquire a second Boeing 707 from Qantas. The carrier's first is completely booked on long-haul charters in 1969; when delivered, the second 707 will be based at Toronto. TransAir of Winnipeg is reported to be almost certain to return to long-haul charter work using 707s. MEA's Destroyed Aircraft The registrations of Middle East Airlines aircraft destroyed in the attack on December 28 were: Viscount 700, OD-ACT; Sud Caravelle 6Ns, OD-AEE and -AEF; Comet 4Cs. OD-ADQ, -ADR and -ADS; Boeing 707- 320, OD-AFC; and 9G-ABP. the VC10 on charter from Ghana Airways. Twin Otters for Mount Cook? The New Zealand operator. Mount Cook Airlines, has been evaluating the DHC Twin Otter as a replacement for their Grumman Widgeon amphibians. The airline has two B-N Islanders on order, to be based at Queenstown for local services, and expects to buy a second HS.748 next year. JAL to Buy Big Trijets? Either L-lOlls or DC-lOs will be ordered before the end of March by Japan Air Lines for domestic services and shorter-haul operations in south-east Asia. The airline's president said this at a recent press confer ence in Tokyo—adding, according to Aviation Daily, that payment conditions will be the deciding factor in the choice. Operating costs of the wide-body trijets are expected to be 15-20 per cent lower than those for the DC-8-60 series. Support for YS-11 Production The Japanese Ministry of International Trade and Industry has earmarked a sum equiva lent to about £8.5 million to cover production of the NAMC YS-11 in fiscal year 1969, which starts on April I, 1969. The current production programme, involving 152 aircraft, built or to be built, is scheduled to be completed in June 1970 and the follow-on production of 30 aircraft will be officially decided upon at the start of fiscal 1969, during which 42 YS-lls will be produced at a cost to NAMC of about £21 million.
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