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Aviation History
1970
1970 - 1612.PDF
The first Skydock over-wing passenger loading bridge to go into use. this unit is installed at the TWA passenger terminal at Los Angeles as part of an £850,000 expansion programme AIR TRANSPORT... CARAVELLE CRASH REPORT THE Board of Trade has published the findings* of its investigation into the cause of the accident which occurred to the Iberia Caravelle (EC-BDD) at Haslemere on November 4. 1967. Despite a prolonged investigation it has not proved possible to determine why the aircraft continued a steady descent down to the ground. Transcripts of the flight recorder and of the communications tape recorder show that the flight was apparently normal and routine and that the crew thought that the flight was progressing satisfactorily. The aircraft was cleared to descend to flight level 210 after passing latitude 50 °N and was given a routeing via Ibsley and Dunsfold. After passing conflicting traffic, the aircraft was recleared to FL110 and directed to turn right on to 060° for Dunsfold. Passing abeam Fawley the aircraft was further cleared to FL60 and, in acknowledging this instruction, the crew reported leaving FL145. Just under 4min later the aircraft was cleared to proceed direct to Epsom on its own navigation, the track being 050°. The acknowledgement of this instruction was the last transmission from the aircraft, which crashed approximately l^min later. Wreckage analysis showed that the aircraft was flying normally in the cruise configuration; all the major components were accounted for at the scene of the accident and examination of the engines showed that they were both hot and turning under power at high speed on impact. The report states: "No evidence was found of any pre-crash failure or defect in either the airframe or the engines, or of any faulty workmanship." Laboratory examination of the remains of the badly damaged altimeters revealed very little useful information; nevertheless a series of tests was undertaken in an effort to correlate the damage with any possible pre-crash cause. Considerable space in the report is devoted to the possibility of altimeter misreading; the aircraft -was fitted with three- pointer altimeters with warnings to indicate when the aircraft was below 10,000ft. The report continues:— "The aircraft descended continuously at a steady rate over a period of 13^min and the pointers would have been in continuous motion throughout, increasing the likelihood of misreading. The cross hatching in this type of altimeter first appears in a window in the 10,000ft disc at an indicated altitude of 26,666ft and the edge of the cross hatching would have been visible within 2min of the aircraft beginning its descent. At 10,000ft the cross hatching completely fills the window and it remains filled as long as the aircraft is below 10,000ft. Thus the cross hatching would have been visible to the crew for a period of about 9|min before the aircraft passed through FL60 and it is a matter for conjecture whether it was •CAP 343 ; HMSO, price 6s. 264 FLIGHT International, 20 August 1970 still an effective warning to them at that stage of the descent, j "With this type of altimeter it is not difficult to read an indication of 6,000ft as 16,000ft if particular note is not made of the position of the 10,000ft pointer. Evidence against the 1 possibility of a simple misreading of this sort is the message > from the aircraft to ATC reporting passing FLI45. indicating that at this time the crew knew that they were below 16,000ft. This evidence indicates that down to this level there had been ( no misreading or misinterpretation but it does not dispose of the possibility that the crew subsequently suffered a mental loss " of sequence and transposed themselves in time and space back to some altitude above 16,000ft. This has been known to , happen in the past; nevertheless, there is no evidence to show that it happened on this occasion." » Reference is made in an appendix to the report to two previous fatal acoidents resulting from descent through assigned i altitudes, the similarity being particularly marked in that, in both cases, as in the subject accident, the last radio exchange l took place when the aircraft had already passed below its assigned altitude. J BOAC RESULTS TODAY ' A PROFIT similar to that of the previous year—£21 million— is likely to be revealed in BOAC's annual report and accounts for 1969-70, due for publication this afternoon. The corpora tion's financial year runs to March 31. In 1968-69 BOAC returned an operating surplus of £21.9 million and a net . profit of £21.2 million; the profit figure was about 5 per cent down on the previous year. i In the current financial year, 1970-71. BOAC was expecting a £25 million operating surplus, but this result is likely to suffer from the prolonged igrounding of the 747 fleet because of a manning dispute, no end to which is yet in sight. Sea/air to Africa Transmeridian Air Cargo is to offer a combined sea/air cargo service to central and east Africa from October. Freight will be transported by sea to Accra and transferred in bond to the airline's CL-44s for onward carriage. New Zealand Automation Automation of reservations and communications facilities by New Zealand National Airways Corporation will be implemented on October 29. The system is based on an IBM Dorac computer which the airline is obtaining on lease at a rental of $38,000 a month (£18,000). End to Pistons New Zealand National Airways Corporation is to withdraw its last two piston-engined aircraft—DC-3s— from service today. Fourth Tradewinds CL-44 Tradewinds. the Gatwick-based long-haul freight carrier, has taken delivery of its fourth CL-44. The three aircraft already operated by Tradewinds were bought from Seaboard, but the fourth has been leased. THY DC-9s Delivered The first of the latest batch of DC-9s to be ordered by THY, Turkish Airlines, has now been delivered. A second will arrive later this month and a third in August 1971. The airline already had four DC-9s in service and one on lease. TWA Appointment Mr Raymond R. Frediani has been named director of the airline for Italy. Mr Frediani, who is at present assistant to the vice-president, international region, and based in Paris, will take up his new post on September 1. Boeing gets Libya Order Libyan Arab Airlines has ordered two Boeing 727-200s at a cost of about $14 million (£5.8 million). They are to be delivered in December. Sales of the 727 now stand at 848, of which 290 are -200s. Libyan Arab has specified a 16-first-cIass/117-tourist configuration. The order is a blow for Hawker Siddeley's Trident sales team, which had hoped for an order from the airline. Finnair DC-9s The Finnair order for six refurbished DC-9-10s and two new convertible aircraft has resolved the airline's Convair 440 replacement problem for domestic and i short international routes (see Flight for April 16, page 620). , The first DC-9-10 will be delivered in January 1971 and all the aircraft, including the convertibles, will be in service before the end of 1972. The convertible aircraft will replace DC-6s on"' European cargo routes. <
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